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EXPOSITION 



OF 



MOTORPATH Y : 



NEW SYSTEM OF CURING DISEASE, 



BY 



STATUMINATING, VITALIZING MOTION. 



Br H. HALS.TED, M. D 



-•-«-•- 




KOCHESTER, K Y. 

PRESS OF CURTIS & BUTTS, DAILY UNION OFFICE, MUSEUM BUILDING. 

1853. 




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I JO 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S53 ; by 

H. HALSTED. M. D., 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for 

the Northern District of ftew York. 



PREFACE 



The intention in publishing this brief "Exposition of Motorpathy," 
is to attract attention to a new system of curing disease, "which has 
been educed in twenty years' practice, and has proved so eminently 
successful in removing the most obstinate and unmanageable cases, 
that I could but desire, that the principle and manner of treatment 
should be more widely known, for the benefit of the sick and suffer- 
ing. In this work, this system is more particularly applied to the 
cure of Uterine diseases, though it is equally efficacious in that of all 
Chronic diseases, where the structure is not destroyed. The applica- 
tion of this principle of treatment to acute diseases, has not been so 
widely tested, but in as far as ajyplied no indications have been pre- 
sented of less successful results. The Pathology of disease and Thera- 
peutic effects of remedial agents are the same, as are generally known 
in the Science of Medicine ; it being only the primary cause of disease 
and the peculiar application of Therpeutical agents in reference to this 
principle, which we claimed as a discovery. The evident marks of 
haste, which will be noticed on perusal, are unavoidable, owing to 
the pressure of business ; but a word to physicians, making known 
to them such a system and its great success in curing the most unyield- 
ing diseases, will be sufficient to induce them to examine and prove 
its merit. "Wishing for the forbearance, for which I hardly dare hope, 
I can only trust in my desire to contribute a little even, to the allevia- 
tion of human suffering. 

H. Halsted. 

Rochester, K. Y., Halsted Hall, January, 1853. 



CONTENTS, 



PAGE. 

Preface ♦ 3 

Motorpathy. — Remarks. — Motion. — Its Existence in Minerals, Veg- 
etables and Animals. — Man, a Complex Being. — Substantia Pri- 
ma. — Vita-Motive Power. — The Brain. — The Two Recuperative 
Principles. — Disease Caused by Loss of Motion. — Its Manifesta- 
tion in a Paralyzed Limb. — No one Remedy or Course of Treat- 
ment, can Cure all Diseases. — Motorpathy 7 

CHAPTER I. 

Woman. — Her Physical Condition in a State of Nature. — Its Con- 
trast, under Civilization. — The Necessity of Reform in her 
Habits 25 

CHAPTER H. 
Pathology of Uterine Diseases 32 

CHAPTER III. 
Functional Diseases. — Amenorrhea. — Cases. — Treatment 44 

CHAPTER IV. 
Dysmenorrhea. — Cases 52 

CHAPTER Y. 
Menorrhagia. — Cases 57 

CHAPTER VI. 
Leucorrhea. — Cases , . , 64 



VI CONTEXTS. 

CHAPTER VH 

PAGE. 

Irritable Uterus. — Cases 74. 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Sterility. — Abortion. — Cases 80 

CHAPTER IX. 

Uterine Displacements. — Prolapsus Uteri. — Retroversion. — Ante- 
version. — Cases 88 

CHAPTER X. 

Simple and Malignant Ulcerations of the Uterus. — Granulations of 
the Os- Uteri — Cases 108 

CHAPTER XL 
Uterine and Ovarian Tumors. — Cases 119 

CHAPTER XH. 

Chronic Diseases. — Dyspepsia. — Hepatitis. — Chronic Diarrhea. — 
Scrofula. — Incipient Consumption. — Bronchitis. — Kidney and 
Urinary Diseases. — Dropsy. — Insanity. — Xeryous Irritability. — 
Neuralgia. — Paralysis. — Epilepsy. — Spinal Disease. — Cases. — 
Treatment 126 






MOTORPATHY. 



Bemarks. — Motion.— Its Existence in Minerals, Vegetables and Ani- 
mals, — Man, a Complex Being. — -Substantia Prima.— Vita- Motive 
Power. — The Brain. — The Two Recuperative Principles. — Loss of 
Motion, Cause of Disease. — Its Manifestation in a Paralyzed Limb. 
No one Remedy or Course of Treatment can Cure all Diseases. — 
Motorpathy. 

The conclusion which is forced upon the mind by contem- 
plating the improvements of the present day, is, that science is 
progressing to that state of perfection, when fundamental truths 
will be established upon such a basis, that succeeding genera- 
tions will not denounce them as hypothetical chimeras, but 
will own their correctness, and deduce from them still greater 
truths. To no one science does this conclusion apply so forcibly 
as to that of Medicine. Experience, observation and generali- 
zation of facts, obtained from comparative anatomy and phys- 
iology, post-mortem examinations and medical practice, combine 
to render it, as an art and science, profound, correct and of 
lasting benefit to mankind. 

The free-thinking, restless multitude, are requiring knowledge 
on every subject. Eager to grasp whatever the mind can 
fathom in science, the attention has been turned upon the human 
system — that body through which the soul is manifested. A 
knowledge of the laws and principles that govern the animal 



8 EXPOSITION OF 

economy, are earnestly demanded, and should be given to all ; 
for upon it depends, serenity of mind, longevity and the de- 
crease of disease. 

The repeated inquiries in reg*ard to our mode of curing dis- 
ease, and the theory upon which it is based, together with the 
previously adopted opinion, that no one member of humanity 
is isolated from the rest, but that each should live for the whole, 
and that whatever knowledge is gained should be diffused for 
the benefit of all — have occasioned us to make this a medium, 
through which our views and opinions may be made known to 
the general reader, as well as to the inquiring student of Medi- 
cal Science. Kecognizing the spirit of investigation inherent 
in every philosophic mind, and the close analysis given to new 
theories, to discover their truth or falsity, as well as the unspar- 
ing severity with which the lovers of time-honored opinions 
denounce any thing new as false and hypothetical — it is not 
without diffidence that publicity is given to opinions, long since 
established by observations made upon the living subject, of 
health and disease. 

The physician has to deal with living, acting, diseased hu- 
manity ; and if he would be successful, he must not only gather 
his knowledge from the past experience and profound research 
of those who have left the rich fruits of their labors as a legacy 
to all coming time ; but he must be possessed of " the great 
and fundamental truth, that in Medicine, probably even more than 
in any other science, the basis of all our knowledge is the accu- 
rate observation of actual phenomena ; and that the correct 
generalization of these phenomena should be the sole foundation 



MOTORPATHY. 9 

for all our reasoning." These phenomena are gathered as much 
from the living, as the dead subject of disease. A science, to 
be true, must be based upon legitimate, incontrovertible facts ; 
and these facts are to be obtained before any deductions can be 
made, or theory established. 

In presenting a new theory as to the cause of disease, and 
the best method of curing it, we are sensible of the opprobrium 
which may be heaped upon us by opposing minds, who are 
satisfied with the amount of knowledge already acquired, and 
regard any farther advancement as unnecessary. But believing 
there are those, solicitous of acquiring knowledge from every 
source, having " minds disposed to the reception of truth, de- 
termined to follow it, wherever it may lead ; " and believing 
also, that every medical practitioner should " bear in mind, 
that his profession is a deposit placed in his hands for the 
benefit of mankind ; " and that it devolves upon him, though 
realizing his inability to the task, to give as much public infor- 
mation as possible, regarding the laws of health, the liabilities 
to disease, and the best means of preventing or eradicating it 
when once established ; the publication of this work is ven- 
tured upon, incomplete as it may be. 

In establishing the system of Motorpathy, no new science 
of Medicine is to be revealed. " Medicine, as a science, cannot 
be changed, but can be improved ; " and a true system of Pa- 
thology and Therapeutics be established, which "will admit 
of continued progression." It is not compatible with the pri- 
mary object of this treatise, to present an account of all the 
causes which have led to the adoption of the theory of Motor- 



10 EXPOSITION OF 

pathy, nor to give a detailed and minute account of organic 
structure, and the changes which take place in it. Suffice it to 
say, that a careful consideration of all the appearances that 
disease puts forth, and a collection of observations and facts 
from the living subject of health and disease, during many 
laborious years devoted to the alleviation of human suffering, 
have led to the discovery of the principles on which this system 
is based. These principles are the same, which many whose 
names have descended to posterity as contributors to the sta- 
bility of the science of Medicine, have aimed at, but failed to 
discover. Though desirous of avoiding, as much as possible, 
entering into theories and speculations which have so generally 
prevailed during the past and present age, yet it may be neces- 
sary occasionally to do so, in order that the subject before us 
may be more clearly elucidated. 

Premising that the reader has already asked the question, 
which has so often been proposed, " What is Motorpathy, and 
what does it signify in the treatment of disease ? " an explana- 
tion of it will be attempted. Motor signifies motion ; pathy, 
to heal or cure. It means, therefore, to cure by motion — to 
heal by a statuminating vitalization that restores the equilib- 
rium of the circulation, thus producing a natural healthy motion 
or action among all the particles of which the body is composed, 
whether solid or fluid. 

In order that the theory of motion may be more clearly 
understood when applied to the human form, it will be neces- 
sary to consider some general facts regarding this principle in 
the natural world. That there is no manifestation of life without 



MOTORPATHY. 11 

growth or increase, and that by the absence of life, decay and 
decomposition take place, are facts so universally conceded, 
that it would be futile to attempt to prove them. It is 
equally conceded, that this growth or increase in the natural 
world, as well as the purity of the elements, air and water, 
depend upon a constant change or motion of their particles, or 
the substances of which they are composed. Geology shows 
that the particles of which minerals are composed, are con- 
stantly changing place, each seeking its own particular affinity 
and depositing itself there. The rocks which have stood for 
ages, and can count their date from the dawn of creation, are 
not without motion ; for wherever there is attraction, there must 
be motion. The very idea of formation, pre-supposes motion. 
In the vegetable world, this principle is still more apparent. 
If there were no change, there would be no growth. A small 
seed is planted in the ground ; it germinates and springs up ; it 
becomes a tree, bearing branches, leaves and fruit. How has 
all this growth and stately appearance been accomplished, but 
by the inevitable law of motion, dependant upon an innate 
principle of life, which is manifested in all the forms of creation ? 
There was a continued deposition of minute material for assim- 
ilation, and an absorption of the useless particles of matter. All 
the particles of its composition are in a state of ceaseless change. 
The fluids are coursing along the minute avenues through the 
trunk and branches, giving out vegetative life by assimilation to 
every part, until all which is available for its growth or preser- 
vation, is used up, at the same time the refuse matter which 
has served its purposes of nourishment, is cast off ; perhaps 



12 EXPOSITION OF 

escaping in the form of a gas. ready to unite with something 
else, and give out its invigorating or destroying influence, as the 
case may be. Girdle that tree, and what is the consequence ? 
The free circulation of its fluids is stopped ; derangement in its 
vegetative health and growth ensues ; it droops, withers and 
dies. The same process is going on in every department of 
the vegetable kingdom — in the mosses, as in the towering tree, 
in the grasses and in the grains, in the low flowering plant that 
scarcely lifts its head above its mother-earth, and in the one 
that requires a century's growth before it can reach its blooming 
perfection. 

This same principle is manifested in the element of water. 
There is a continual motion occurring, not only in the whole as 
a body, but also in the atoms of which it is formed. It takes 
place in the murmuring rivulet, as well as in the foaming cata- 
ract — in the placid stream as well as in the surging ocean. If 
this free motion is obstructed or prevented, in the same propor- 
tion the water becomes stagnant, decomposition takes place, and. 
the pestilential effluvia and noxious miasm is sent forth, as a 
consequence of this loss of motion. 

As we approach the animal kingdom, the same law of cease- 
less motion, as the source of healthy organization and. develop- 
ment, is still more apparent. It is necessary for the perfect 
formation of the radiating group of animals, which forms the 
connecting link between the vegetable and animal kingdom, 
some of which present so near a resemblance to that of 
" composit blossoms, as to have been commonly termed animal 
flowers/' Motion is the starting point for the aggregation of 



MOTORPATHY. 13 

colls in the embryo animal, and continues to be the. governing 
law of healthy development, through all the progressive stages 
of the animal creation, up to man. 

But when we come to speak of man, we are not to consider 
him as merely a chemical, mechanical, or physiological being ; 
but as a higher order of creation. In him the phenomena of 
life " belong to a class of facts, and constitute a subject of 
investigation, altogether distinct from those which are presented 
by any forms or changes " of animate or inanimate matter. 
Although it be true " that all vital actions are attended by, and 
in part dependant on, a series of continued chemical changes," 
yet the " chemical changes of animated nature are as distinct 
from those which we produce at pleasure in dead matter, as 
the stimulations by nerves and the contractions of muscles are 
distinct from any of the principles and powers of mechanics.* 
All those functions which necessarily require a mental act, can 
" derive no elucidation from any thing that is ever seen in the 
inanimate world." If we would have a rational foundation for 
medical science — one to which we can trust for the exposition 
and treatment of disease in the human system — we must look 
not only beyond the pale of inanimate matter and vegetable 
life, but beyond mere animal existence, and consider man as a 
complex being ; as possessed of motive powers, proceeding from 
a principle within, by which, and only through which, many of 
the phenomena occurring in the human system can be accounted 
for. All the principles that govern his existence, are to be rec- 
ognized, before any definite knowledge of the functions of the 

* See Cyclopedia of Medicine. 



14 EXPOSITION OF 

living body can be obtained. It is true, that a principle of life 
is manifested throughout creation. In some of the higher 
classes of animals, the organization and functions are, in many- 
particulars, closely allied to man. But it is not in the province 
of this work, to trace the varieties of " organization and vital 
phenomenon, throughout the different orders of animals," or to 
explain their proximity to man, and the differences existing be- 
tween them. We have only to do with the functions of the 
living body, as seen in him, and the operation of the causes 
which produce a healthy or diseased state of his frame. In 
doing this, an effort will be made to avoid all speculation, and 
to be as brief as possible. 

In considering, then, the complex state of the living man, it 
must be remembered, that the body acts only while it is the 
home of the indwelling spirit ; and that there is a pefect corres- 
pondence existing between the inner and outer man — that the 
spirit fashioneth for itself a tabernacle adapted to its connection 
with the external world — and that spirit is the " substantia 
prima" or first substance of the body, and as the " formative 
substance, it draws the thread from the first living point, and 
continues it afterwards to the last point of life ; " and conse- 
quently derives its being from a still Higher Source. But, as 
the investigation of that subject belongs to the metaphysician 
and philosopher, it. is left for them, desiring only, that 
cognizance of that first principle should always be taken, when 
considering the physiological phenomena of the natural man ; 
and except that acknowledgment is made, much of the phe- 
nomena of disease cannot be accounted for. 



MOTORPATHY. 15 

The second proposition that presents itself, is that of a prin- 
ciple which was discovered in the seventeenth century, and on 
which various speculations and hypotheses have arisen, respect- 
ing its influence on the fundamental changes taking place in 
the human system. Yet the nature of that principle, or its 
action in sustaining life, we think has not been understood or 
explained by any physiologist. It has received a variety of 
names, as nervous fluid, electro-animal magnetic power, ether, 
animal spirit, and vital principle — but which we shall designate 
as the vita-motive power of the body, and recognize as the 
principle which is the connecting link between the prima-sub- 
stance and the grosser parts of the body. This vita-motive 
power is a production of the cortical substance of the brain, 
and, as Malpighi remarks, is carried " from the cortical glands 
into the medulla oblongata, through little channels proceeding 
from every separate gland ; " and through the medium of the 
medulla oblongata and medulla spinalis, is emitted into all the 
medullary fibres or origins of the nerves, runs through the 
most diminutive and attenuated vessels, stamina, and fibrules, 
and traverses and supplies with moisture every living point and 
corner of the body. " The circulation of this fluid establishes 
a communication between the fibres and the vessels," and 
between the vessels and the blood ; and by the relation existing 
between the vessels and the circulating fluid, constitutes the 
attractions and repulsions of the body, and by entering into the 
composition of the blood, " constitutes the essence of the life 
and activity " of that fluid. It is owing to the presence of 
this principle, that the affinity exists between the assimilated 



16 EXPOSITION OF 

matter in the blood, and the vessels by which that matter is 
taken up and deposited, or between the excreting material 
already existing in that fluid, and the vessels by which it is 
evolved or separated. 

Thus, in the embryo formation of the human species, the 
brain is the first thing recognized, and the proportion which it 
bears to the body, although continually decreasing as the foetus 
progresses in size, is at four months, several times larger than in 
the full grown man. The brain at this time, (in a foetus of 
four months,) ceases in a great measure to grow or expand, and 
a process of thickening, or consolidation of its substance, com- 
mences, which continues up to the time of birth. Xotwith- 
standino- this cessation of growth, the size of the brain in the 
new-born infant, as compared with the bodv, is very much larger 
than in the child of a few years old ; and the proportion of the 
brain in a child of a few years old, is still much larger than in 
the adult person ; showing conclusively, the prior necessity of 
the brain, in its great preponderance during that period of life, 
when the vital powers are stimulated to their greatest activity 
for the supply of the wants of the increasing body, by the 
assimilation of the elements necessary to its consolidation and 
perfect development. So that first there must be a prima-sub- 
stance capable of drawing from the vital system of the mother, 
the material for constituting a brain, for the production of the 
vita-motive power necessary for diffusion into every vesicle and 
minute point of the body, and through them into the circulat- 
ing fluids. Secondly, the brain must be nourished and sup- 
ported by the same means that every other portion of the body 



MOTORPATHY. 17 

is ; which is by assimilated foreign matter, introduced through, 
the medium of the stomach, lungs and skin ; and by means of 
this stimulating vita-motive power on the one hand, and the 
nourishing, reproductive power on the other, a continued action 
is established. 

This continued action between these two fundamental prin- 
ciples of the body, constitutes the law of perfect motion, in all 
the particles of which it is composed. There is no such thing 
as rest in any of the materials entering into its composition. It 
is one perpetual round of change. By the vitalization of every 
part and portion of the body, through the direct subtle agency 
of the vita-motive power, the system is prepared for the recep- 
tion of foreign substance, and stimulated to chemical and vital 
action upon what it receives. Assimilation and sanguification 
take place, and then, through the agency of the vital affinities, 
it is deposited in the needed place, whether that be in the 
frame-work of the body, in the bones, or in the hard and en- 
during muscle — in the lungs, or other viscera — or in the more 
delicate fluids ; and when the nourishing and invigorating prin- 
ciples of whatever is taken into the body, are separated, the 
remainder is thrown off as useless matter. When these recupe- 
rative forces are equal — acting in harmony — perfect motion and 
perfect health is the consequence. Hence the influence of well 
developed brains, especially when the cortical substance is large 
in proportion to the medullary, in resisting the encroachments 
of disease. Hence, also, the word Motorpathy, combining in 
itself the idea that perfect motion and perfect health are co- 
equally existing circumstances in the body, and that by a loss 



18 . EXPOSITION OF 

of the former, a loss of the latter follows as a consequence. 
The philosophic remedy is the restoration of that perfect motion. 

A cause is found in the vita-motive power for all the invol- 
untary as well as the voluntary actions. The action of the 
internal viscera, the stomach, the heart and lungs, and circulat- 
ing fluids, depend upon the presence of this principle. In 
recognizing the vita-motive power as the connection between 
the inner and outer man, the relation existing between mind 
and matter, and the influence the one has over the other, is 
clearly understood. The brain being the organ through which 
the mind manifests itself, and also the producer of the vita-mo- 
tive power, the mind becomes an impetus to that power in 
diffusing it through the body. "When the cerebrum is large, 
and the brain of a fine quality and texture, the cortical portion 
of it maintaining the ascendancy, and the other parts of the 
body being harmoniously developed, the amount of motive 
power produced, and the impetus given to it, will be very great ; 
the brain will be intensely active, the manifestations of the 
mind, both mental and physical, will be strong, the resistance 
to disease powerful, and health and longevity greatly increased. 

If the reader clearly understands the principle and action of 
life which is going on in the human system, and the cause of 
the changes that are taking place in it, in a healthy condition, 
he will now be enabled to apply these principles to the devel- 
opment of disease and also understand the claims here made 
of the discovery of that cause. For though the principle here 
designated the vita-motive power, has been acknowledged as 
the vital essence ; yet its particular action on the body in the 



MOTORPATHY. 19 

development of health, or disease, has never been- understood 
or explained. The necessity of a reciprocal action between the 
two recuperative forces of the body — the vita-motive or propel- 
ling power supplied by the brain and the functions of the 
absorbent system, which furnishes material for the reparation 
of waste and expenditure — has not been understood. It is 
upon the harmonious, reciprocal action existing between these, 
that health depends. Destroy that balance of motion, or in- 
terrupt that harmony of action and disease is the consequence. 
If this proceeds to the destruction of the affinity between the 
two forces, death ensues. 

This loss of harmonious action may be produced in a variety 
of ways, and may originate from internal or external causes. 
It may be, that what is taken into the stomach is of such a 
nature that chylifaction can be- but imperfectly performed and 
therefore the assimulation is hindered ; or it may be that the 
quantity taken is so great as to overtax the vita-motive power ; 
or to withdraw it from other portions of the system, leaving 
them languid and but partially vivified, that its main force may 
be expended upon the stomach in assisting it to free itself of 
the load imposed. In either case, the attractions and repulsions 
are impeded, and the forces thrown out of balance. Hence we 
find that food of an improper quality or quantity is a prolific 
cause of disease, and. why indigestion produces such an excessive 
and complete derangement of the whole system. 

Suppose an individual has arrived at the age of puberty, 
with every part of the system well developed and nicely bal- 
anced. He has been educated physiologically and psycholo- 



20 EXPOSITION OF 

gically, -with direct reference to the laws of health and the 
preservation of life ; no one thing is in excess ; perfect, complete, 
harmonious action, exists in every atom which composes his 
frame. At that age he commences an excessive indulgence of 
his appetite. Food and drink are thrown into the stomach, 
which in quality are innutritious, because difficult of digestion, 
and requiring much vita-motive power to accomplish it ; and 
the quantity is inordinate, making a large mass to be disposed 
of in some way, which, notwithstanding the large amount of 
vital force which the stomach calls to its aid, at the expense of 
other vital operations going on in the system, is but imperfectly 
ehylified. In consequence, unassimilated matter finds its way 
into the circulation. Here it remains as a foreign substance, 
unfit for the uses of nourishment, dogging the vessels bv its 
presence, until it is deposited in some part of the body, where 
its unadaptation to the wants of the part, causes it to create 
irritation and engender disease, until the vita-motive power 
stimulates the lymphatics to take it up and expel it from the 
system. The recuperative forces being strong and vigorous, 
they will for a time resist the injurious effects of this undue 
amount of labor imposed upon them, but not always. The 
retention of unassimilated matter, which is no better than 
poison to the body, will have its influence. This may be slight 
at first, but the continued deposition of unhealthy material for 
the renewal of worn-out matter, will gradually accumulate, 
until every part of the system suffers from the presence of such 
material and the attendant derangement. The blood, from its 
loaded state, cannot circulate freely. The brain not being 



MOTORPATHY. 21 

nourished by healthy material for its renewal, its -capacity for 
producing the vita-motive power is diminished, and thus there 
is a continued decrease of action in both forces. This consti- 
tutes a loaded state of the system favorable to the development 
of contagious diseases, fevers and inflammations. If the excess 
is more gradually entered into, it may result in a general deli- 
cacy, want of strength, and languor of body. If there be a 
predisposition to disease in any particular organ, the impurities 
will be deposited there, and the disease will manifest itself ac- 
cording to the particular causes which operate upon the indi- 
vidual, for there are no two persons situated or constituted 
alike. All have their own peculiar idiosyncrasies, often derived 
from birth, if not from the circumstances by which they have 
been surrounded, and their habits of adaptation to them. The 
cause which in one would produce dyspepsia, may develope 
in another scrofula, in another uterine disease, in another pul- 
monary disease, and so on through the whole catalogue of 
organic diseases. 

When the balance between the two forces has been so imper- 
fectly imparted to the child in embryo, as never to act in har- 
mony, it constitutes an hereditary diathesic state of the consti- 
tution, which predisposes to certain diseases. The weakest 
organ of the body is usually first affected, and remains the 
primary seat of disease, around which often cluster innumerable 
secondary affections. Another fruitful cause of disease, is the 
breathing of impure air. As the blood is unfitted for the uses 
of circulation until decarbonization takes place in the lungs, 
where it is brought into contact with the respired air ; and as 



22 EXPOSITION OF 

decarbonization takes place but imperfectly, unless the air be 
pure, it shows the necessity of this element in its purity, as an 
aid in the support of motion. Whenever the blood becomes 
impure, from whatever cause, it is in so far unfitted for the 
nourishment of the body, and the replacing of waste matter 
and, in consequence, the harmony of action between that and 
the vita-motive is disturbed. 

The necessity of the vita-motive power to stimulate the cir- 
culating vessels — to propel the so-called vital system to healthy 
action, is plainly manifested in a paralyzed limb. All the san- 
guineous and absorbent vessels remain uninjured, and rilled with 
their appropriate fluids. The brain influence alone, is in part 
cut off. What is the consequence \ Does the limb suffer any 
thing more than the loss of the command of will over it \ The 
power to turn and move it at pleasure \ Does the nourishing 
process go on as formerly \ No. Why not? Do not the 
sanoTiineous and absorbent vessels remain without obstruction, 
intact and connected to the sources of their supply ? Why 
then does the limb become pale, showing a want of blood ? 
Why do the muscles become soft and flabby \ In short, why 
does it perish ! Yes ; why is it, except that the ever-present, 
all-pervading vita-motive power, with its own peculiar proprium 
of motion, is a necessary constituent to healthy, vital action. 

As the loss of motion is the foundation, the starting point in 
the origin of disease, the primary object of the physician should 
be, to restore that motion. This is to be accomplished by a 
variety of means. It does not follow, that because there is one 
primary cause for the development of disease, that there can 



MOTORPATHY. 23 

be one grand panacea, one general remedy, one particular course 
of treatment, which will remove all kinds or classes of difficul- 
ties, or heal every malady to which the human frame is liable. 
Going back to nature once more, as the guide by which, and 
the source from which, all our observations are to be drawn, 
it is found that when left alone to her own restorative measures, 
she does not always adopt the same course in throwing off dis- 
ease. At one time the bowels are made the great evacuent by 
which the accumulated and poisonous matter is disposed of ; at 
another the kidneys ; and still another the skin ; and at times, 
all these operate together. Again, the " resolution of inflam- 
mation, the exudation and organization of lymph on inflamed 
surfaces, the process of suppuration and sloughing, the function 
of absorption, and the increase of absorption from pressure," are 
circumstances which tend to the preservation of life, and are 
processes dependant " on very different principles or laws of 
the animal economy." As one particular course is not always 
followed by nature, neither will one remedy alone, or one par- 
ticular plan of treatment under all circumstances, be found 
adequate to effectually aid and assist her efforts to overcome 
disease. 

Those who would become pre-eminently useful by their skill- 
ful treatment of disease, and as the guardians of health, should 
take all these things into consideration, and hold the mind open 
to the adoption of aids from every source. A perfect system of 
Motorpathic treatment, should refuse no assistance which may be 
offered in the vast field of nature or art. It should only cull 

such medicines or such therapeutic agents as are subservient to 
2 



24 EXPOSITION OF 

the great end in view — the establishment of an equally balanced, 
sustained, and vigorous motion between the two great recupera- 
tive forces in every portion of the body. 

It is to that part of Motorpathic treatment, personally given, 
and which is a peculiar process of statumination and vitaliza- 
tion, to which is owed so much success in the cure of chronic 
diseases. Its influence is brought to bear immediately on the 
organ affected. Acting first upon the capillary vessels, it invites 
them to motion, and makes them ready recipients of the vita- 
motive power. It has also a powerful effect in arousing the 
dormant organic function to energy of action, and by these 
means increases the amount of attraction and repulsion between 
the two vital forces of the body, and gives out an invigorating, 
sustaining influence, which has never been obtained from any 
other source. Motorpathy is pre-eminently the remedy in many 
forms of disease. 

The modus operandi of this process cannot be given with 
sufficient clearness to enable a physician to enter into a judicious 
practice of it, short of a course of personal instruction, there* 
fore its explanation will not be attempted. 



PART I. 

CHAPTER I. 

WOMAN. 

Jler Physical Condition in a State of Nature. — Its Contrast under 
Civilization. — The Necessity of Reform in her Habits. 

In tracing the history of woman in the early Asiatic and 
European nations, we find her passing most of her time in the 
open air — in the care of flocks — in the gathering of fruits — and 
in assisting in the lighter portions of husbandry. Her dwelling 
was a tent or a house which admitted the air freely, being with- 
out doors or windows, and the storm and cold beating in at all 
the corners and crevices. Horses and carriages were things 
almost unknown. She performed her journeys and her fre- 
quent religious pilgrimages, through countries or through 
provinces, whether of a few miles or of many, by the unassisted 
aid of her native locomotive powers. 

What was the effect of all this exposure and hardship ? 
Did she droop and die before half the years allotted to her spe- 
cies, were numbered ? On the contrary, it was a period of her 
particular longevity. Did she suffer from colds, inflammations 
and painful menstruations at the period of entering womanhood 
' — that time, from some exposure, in which so many at the 



26 EXPOSITION OF 

present day date their ill health ? Colds, suppressions and 
painful menstruations, were things at that time scarcely known. 
The girl passed through the physical changes which constitute 
her a woman, without pain. When she became a wife and 
entered the delicate state of maternity — that crowning perfec- 
tion of her sex — she passed through this ordeal, without any 
of those nervous agitations, those pains and sympathetic affec- 
tions, which renders the life of so many married women at the 
present day, a ceaseless succession of languor and suffering. 
She pursued her journeys or out-door employments up to the 
very time of giving birth ; and that event, instead of being the 
occasion of sickness and prostration for weeks or months after, 
scarcely interrupted her ordinary avocations. 

Perhaps some will say this was in the primeval state of man, 
when he was fresh from the hands of his Creator; and that the 
climate was better adapted to living in the open air than now. 
To some extent this is true. But the Indian women — those 
children of nature in our own woods — and those still farther 
north, have the same exemption from uterine disease, and bear 
hardship and exposure with the same impunity, as was en- 
joyed by those ancient children of nature ; showing that at 
this day, like habits of life produce like vigor and hardihood 
of the physical frame, and adapts woman's nature and the de- 
velopment of her physiological perfections to her native climate, 
whether it be cold or warm. 

"What a striking contrast to the condition of woman in civil- 
ized countries, particularly in America. Here, all her occupa- 
tions are in-doors and constitute too often, a ceaseless round of 



MOTORPATHY. 27 

domestic drudgery, unenlivened by change, and almost unal- 
leviated by rest. Her household cares are ceaseless. Even the 
short respite of sleep is frequently rendered fitful by the cares 
necessary to a sick child, or the ever-recurring wants of an in- 
fant. Add to this the deleterious effects accruing to so many 
of her sex, from confinement to sedentary employments, usually 
in close, unventilated apartments ; and the confinement and 
occupation so unremitted, as scarcely to allow the unhappy 
female to inhale the fresh, pure atmosphere for weeks together. 

All her occupations, all her pleasures and labors, are of such 
a nature as to tax, particularly, her nervous energy ; and what 
means has she for replenishing this constant drain upon 
her vita-motive powers ? The assistance of pure air — an in- 
dispensable ingredient for its plentiful formation — is denied ; 
and the cheerful, spontaneous activity of her muscular system 
necessary to a healthy digestion and assimilation is also denied. 
Whence shall her brain draw its nourishment, and the means 
for supplying the large demands constantly made upon it ? No 
wonder she is nervous and irritable. jN"o wonder that she suf- 
fers from exhaustion — that she looks worn — that she becomes 
pale and sickly — that she fades before her time, and fills an 
early grave. 

On the other hand the wealthy are enervated by luxury till 
the simple act of breathing becomes too often an effort. As 
for using their God-given motive powers — their muscles and 
tendons vigorously or useful ly— -it is unladylike, and not to be 
thought of. To walk five or ten miles of a morning, to see a 
friend, further some benevolent object or attend church, would 



28 EXPOSITION OF 

be to show herself vulgarly robust. In short, delicacy of body 
and weakness of muscle, has become a fashion among Ameri- 
can women. 

The girl, before she leaves the nursery, is taught to restrain 
all active manifestations. No vigorous outbursts of physical 
activity are allowed. The cravings of her nature for the exer- 
cise of her organs, are not to be gratified. She must not shout 
or laugh, or run, or be noisy. She must shun boisterousness 
above every thing, and not romp and play out of doors; it 
would be an unpardonable vulgarity. All the involuntary 
promptings of her physical powers for use, are to be curbed, 
checked, quieted. 

Sadly, in the end, does nature avenge herself for this im- 
posed constraint. It is one of her unalterable laws, that what- 
ever power or capacity she confers, whether of mind or body, 
if denied use, languishes and becomes torpid, or puts on a 
morbid and diseased action. This is also the case when any 
power, capacity or function of the human body is over-taxed — 
made to perform too much labor. For instance, the man who 
habitually makes his stomach digest twice the quantity of food 
requisite for the nourishment of his body, will sooner or later, 
be troubled with indigestion. And it is a well known fact, 
that those who allow themselves in unlimited sexual indulgence, 
come at length to lose their prolific powers, to have morbid 
cravings, or no potency. Protracted hard labor beyond the in- 
dividual's powers of endurance, occasions rheumatisms, stiffness 
of the muscles, or flacidity and want of power. On the other 
hand, every faculty or function requires use for the full devel- 



MOTORPATHT. 29 

opment of its powers. This is evident from the effect upon a 
limb, which has been kept weeks or months in one position. 
The muscles either become contracted and stiff, or soft and re- 
laxed ; in either case incapable of manifesting its full powers of 
motion, which have to be gradually induced in it by use. 

And what attention does this imperative demand for use 
have in the education of females at the present day ? Alas ! 
very little. Woman, as a general thing, is taught to curb or 
suppress all the strengthening faculties of her mind and body 
In mental exercises, what bold graspings of the intellect are 
thought to be in woman's province ? Mathematics, philosophy 
and the sterner sciences, are supposed unsuited to her. There 
is left but music, painting, poetry and the literature of the sen- 
timents ; all good as a portion of her education, but all 
tending to refine rather than strengthen. Were it not for the 
moral power sometimes springing out of the cultivation of her 
sentiments, and like a spiritual halo enveloping and preserving 
her in its pure brightness, the world would sicken of weakness 
and inanity. Were it not for these occasional glimpses of the 
angel in woman — where her weakness is made her strength — 
the wings of our poetic estimation of her, would trail in the dust. 

This may appear a digression in a work of this character, 
but he who could revolutionize the system of woman's educa- 
tion, and establish it on philosophic principles, where all the 
faculties of her physical nature should be strengthened and 
harmoniously developed by culture, as well as all the faculties 
of the mind and heart ; would confer such a blessing upon hu- 
manity, as no physician could hope to emulate. And until 



30 EXPOSITION OF 

there is a reformation in her habits, and she comes to recognize 
the fact that her physical powers must have use — until she 
emerges from her delicacy and puts forth her strength, and wills 
and accomplishes uses ; she must suffer. It is the law of na- 
ture, and nature is a jealous ruler and will be obeyed. 

Her sufferings may be alleviated by the skill of her physician, 
but unless she moulds her habits in some degree, into obedience 
with the requirements of nature, it will be only alleviation and 
mitigation. There will be no thorough renovation, no enduring 
elasticity and strength of constitution. 

This is one reason why it is advantageous to an invalid to 
leave home, which makes it easier to break away from the bonds 
of old habits, and be placed in an Institution, or under the care 
of a physician, where the diet, exercise and all the habits are 
under his personal supervision. Many extreme cases, where the 
physical powers lie in ruins, and both mind and body are suf- 
fering from the weight of disease, are raised to a state of health 
and strength, in an institution, whom it would be impossible 
to cure, if attended by the same physician at home. New as- 
sociations, the greater ease of forming new and better habits, 
all have their influence. And in some cases it is necessary to 
make use of every beneficial influence in the patient's behalf. 
In private practice, it is often the case that a physician cannot, 
in his patient's house, command the facilities for carrying out 
such a treatment as his better j udgment might suggest. Conse- 
quently the patient is prescribed for, and advised according to 
the means at hand. In an institution, every means that art, 
aided by experience, can bring to bear upon a patient for his 



MOTORPATHY. 31 

benefit, can be put into requisition, and of course, improvement 
can be made more rapid and recovery more certain. 

When woman shall attain a better knowledge of the laws of 
health, and the pain of their infringement — when she shall 
learn to look upon sickness in its true light, as a penalty for the 
transgression of some physical law, intead of blindly laying her 
load of suffering and misery at the door of Providence, and 
waiting with folded hands until some miracle shall be performed 
in her behalf, she will have done much toward lessening the 
evils of her condition. She will then have learned the first 
lesson inscribed as an unvarying principle of nature on all living 
things, that pow T er is given according to use. If she would 
have elasticity of muscle — ease and gracefulness of motion — 
she must use her muscles not merely in staid movements and 
promenades, but give them free and vigorous use in all the 
flexions of which they are capable. 

Would she have a blooming, healthful complexion \ Rise 
early and take much out-door exercise, that her blood may not 
be sent through her veins in sluggish, dark currents, but by ex- 
posure to pure air, be properly decarbonized and sent leaping 
through the system, tinging the cheeks with its own brilliant 
hues. So with all the powers with which she has been blest. 
Let her " not hide them under a bushel or bury them in the 
earth," but give them free use. Then her harmonious develop- 
ments shall not dazzle merely but delight, causing happiness 
wherever she appears, and carrying within herself a well-spring 
of cheerfulness and peace. 



CHAPTER II. 

PATHOLOGY OF UTERINE DISEASES. 

These diseases have been thought anions the most formidable, 
and considered less susceptible of permanent cure than most, 
if not any other class of diseases. Few diseases are so general 
in their selection of victims, as these. "Wherever civilization 
has placed her footsteps, and an artificial state of society has 
begun its weakening process, there uterine diseases have fol- 
lowed like destroying angels, readv to avenge the transgression 
of nature's laws. In America these diseases have become so 
common that scarcely a woman can be met who has not, at 
some period of her life, suffered from derangement of the ute- 
rine functions. 

Perhaps there is no organ in the system more important in 
its offices, than that of the uterus: and certainly the disease of 
no other produces a train of more distressing sympathetic af- 
fections. These sympathetic affections are frequently so urgent 
as to be mistaken by the physician for the primary disease ; and 
the unhappy patient is treated for first one disease, and then an- 
other, until, at length, she sinks under her accumulated suffering. 

" It is well known in the practice of medicine, that diseases 
do not always produce external symptoms proportionate to their 
degree of severity or danger. This observation is peculiarly 
applicable to affections of the uterus. We frequently find this 



MOTORPATHY. S3 

organ in a state of disease, which admits no hope of cure, while 
the general health does not seem to suffer in the least. The 
complexion is yet fresh and blooming, while the patient pre- 
sents nothing but a few insignificant symptoms of disorder in 
the generative organs. On the other hand, we observe women 
who are affected in a very slight manner, become thin, suffer 
excessive pain, and gradually waste away. 

" Hence, the necessity of a most careful examination the mo- 
ment we suspect the existence of any disease in this part of the 
body. In general, we mark the following precursory symptoms : 
The woman loses a small quantity of blood from time to time, 
without any pain, or has a leucorrhea, which continues during 
the interval of menstruation. The breasts become slightly 
tumid, and she thinks this often a sign of good health. She 
feels some pain in the loins after walking or riding in a rough 
carriage. When she stands for any length of time, a sense of 
fatigue in the pelvis and of dragging in the loins compels her 
to sit down. Coition is often followed by a slight loss of 
blood, and excites slight pain, which may disappear quickly, 
or remain for one, two, or even three days. Sometimes 
the disease is arrested at this point, and ceases sponta- 
neously; but more frequently the fluor albus becomes more 
abundant ; the woman experiences pain, not usually in the 
uterus, but about the loins, the round and broad ligaments, 
or even a pain running down the back of the thighs and legs 
to the heels, whence it is often misiaken for a sciatica ; the pain 
may also extend towards the umbilicus to the flanks, or very 



34 EXPOSITION OF 

often to the rectum, especially when the neck of the uterus, 
thrown backward by a slight anteversion of the organ, presses 
on the intestine. The fioodings now succeed each other at 
shorter intervals ; the breasts dwindle away, and a sympathetic 
gastro-enteritis declares itself; the patient is affected during the 
day by a slight fever, recurring at intervals more or less fre- 
quent, or by nervous attacks ; the skin is dry ; digestion be- 
comes deranged ; the woman loses flesh and complexion, and 
the whole skin assumes a sickly, dull color. 

" The disease seldom arrives at this point without a physician 
being consulted, and it is now easily discovered ; but at other 
times, as has been remarked, the disorder, though hidden, 
increases, while the general health seems perfect, and only re- 
veals itself on a sudden, with alarming symptoms ; digestion is 
interrupted, and the patient is afflicted with excessive pain ; 
hemorrhage now sets in and recurs frequently ; the skin be- 
comes dry and earthy-colored ; finally, a colliquative diarrhea 
makes its appearance, and terminates the scene. 

u The period, unfortunately, is not very distant from the present 
time, when diseases of the uterus were involved in great ob- 
scurity. On the one hand, they were considered as essentially 
fatal, when they had made a little progress ; on the other they 
were completely mistaken or neglected, as inconveniences too 
simple to arrest the attention of the surgeon. In the former 
case the practitioner, struck with the inefficacy of his art, found 
himself compelled to employ nothing but palliative measures, 
and saw his patient fall a victim to the most violent suffering. 



M0T0RPATHY. 35 

But within a few years numerous researches, made in phatho- 
logical and surgical anatomy, have thrown considerable light 
on this important part of pathology. 

" By a more rigorous examination of the symptoms revealing 
the alterations of the uterine tissues, we are now enabled to 
establish new distinctions to prove, by phathological anatomy, 
and the effect of treatment, that many uterine diseases are 
much less dangerous than have been imagined, and that they 
frequently are neither of a carcinomatous nor a scirrhous nature. 
jSTotwithstanding this great success, disease of the uterus some- 
times resists all treatment. Every surgeon knows that many 
women, yielding to a false shame, refuse to submit to an exami- 
nation, and permit the affection to go until an operation is indis- 
pensable ; and I am compelled to observe, that although the 
new ideas on diseases of the uterus have already been laid be- 
fore the public, yet that the old ideas are so rooted, that many 
physicians remain too frequently tranquil spectators of the pro- 
gress made by the disease.*" 

The causes which have conspired to make woman the frail, 
delicate, suffering being she is, are numerous. They are prin- 
cipally entailed upon her by the usages of society — by her 
false education, which has curbed and weakened instead of har- 
moniously developing her physical powers, and causing a well- 
balanced activity in the functions of every organ — by the false 
popular ideas of treatment, and, (pardon me if I say it,) by the 
false therapeutic agents of physicians themselves. 

The hitherto-supposed inherently, unyielding character of ute- 

* Lisfranc. 



•36 EXPOSITION OF 

rine diseases, has probably led to the almost universal adoption 
of harsh remedies, which have aggravated the disease in more 
instances than they have cured it. The nature of the disease 
attacking the organ, appears to have made but little difference 
with the severity of the remedies used ; whether it was of a 
kind which produced alterations in the structure, as scirrhous, 
cancer, tumors, pollypi, fungous growths, or ulcers ; or whether 
it was of a kind referable to functional derangement or weak- 
ness ; as prolapsus, anteversion, and retroversion of that or- 
gan, leucorrhea, neuralgia of the organ, catamenial suppress 
sion, <fec. 

A popular author* on the diseases of females, says : " Col- 
lating the opinions of others resting on cases, with the facts ob- 
served by myself, I am convinced that mercury and iodine aid- 
ed by iron and the horizontal position, are the best general 
remedies. But in cancer of the cervix-uttri even these are not 
to be relied on alone ; external or local treatment must be em- 
ployed. The iodide of iron I have exhibited in combination 
with the ioduret of arsenic and conium. 

" These drugs, however, (referring to belladonna, hyosyamus, 
stramonium, and acontium.) and especially iodine, mercury, and 
iron, should form a part of the treatment." 

And as if it were not enough that the strength of the pa- 
tient should be preyed upon by the disease and the prostrating 
effect of these medicines, bleeding, leeches, scarifications, and 
blisters are resorted to as a local remedy. On this point, the 
same author says : M Blood-letting in some instances by vene- 

* AshwelL 



MOTORPATHY. 3 7 

section, but most frequently by cupping and leeches applied to 
the perineum, vulva, or cervix-uteri, or by scarifications of this 
latter part, has long ranked among the most efficient means for 
diminishing the rise, and arresting the advance of cancerous 
growths." In cases of prolapsus, retroversion, and antrover- 
sion of the uterus and other displacements of that organ, the 
treatment is but little milder. Referring again to the same au- 
thor, he says, in speaking of these, that " cases occur where 
fomentations, leeches, and scarifications are required in addition 
to general bleeding and antophlogistic treatment." 

What language can be found forcible enough to express the 
disapprobation such a course of treatment in these cases de- 
serves ? The system which is suffering from the wasting, 
debilitating influence of cancerous formations or scirrhous de- 
posit, requires all the blood it has for its support, and by taking 
away any of that life-sustaining current, the chance of recovery is 
diminished, in proportion to the quantity withdrawn. And surely 
these most irritating, excruciating diseases are sufficiently ex- 
hausting to the nervous system, without any auxiliary irritants* 
The system, in these diseases, pre-eminently requires soothing, 
and the invigorating vitalization which the process of personal 
Motorpathic treatment gives. This should be aided by external 
as well as internal medication, and soothing local applications, 
modified by degrees to invigorating ones. 

In uterine displacements, as well might we think of setting 
a broken bone by general or local blood-letting, as expect to 
replace a prolapsed uterus by it ; or we might as soon expect 
to reduce a displaced joint by the exhibition of mercury, and 



38 EXPOSITION OF 

the application of leeches, as to permanently restore the flexions 
of that organ by such a course. 

Kest, in a horizontal position, more or less strictly enjoined, 
is universally prescribed in uterine displacements, and very 
generally in other weaknesses and diseases of that organ. It is 
a well known physiological fact, that a muscle or tendon, if 
denied use, looses its elasticity, and becomes relaxed and weak- 
ened, or contracted and rigid, which, in either case, unfits it to 
perform its natural functions. The operations of nature should 
never be taken out of her hands ; we may aid, but should, not 
endeavor to supersede her. Therefore the practice of keeping 
the patient in a recumbent position or with the hips elevated, 
cannot be too strongly deprecated. Let all of woman's powers 
be invigorated, rather than weakened. She is prone enough, 
without her physician's counsel, to sink under disease into a 
state of immobility. 

It is readily admitted, that pessaries have sometimes been 
useful, in the absence of better knowledge, in supporting the 
uterus in an upright position. But they are an unnatural sup- 
port, and one to which nature will not long consent. They 
have far oftener proved injurious than beneficial. They have 
been of too large size, of an objectionable shape, injudiciously 
used, and almost universally worn too lono; without removal. 

Dieffanback says that " he has frequently known the pessary to 
occasion putrid discharges from the vagina ; in some cases dila- 
tation to a most inconvenient extent; in others, contraction of 
the same organ ; in other females, dangerous cancerous or fun- 
gous productions from the vaginal mucous membrane;' " Some- 



MOTORPATHY. 39 

times," he says, " I was able to extract the foreign- body with 
my fiDgers, but in many other cases, it was necessary to break 
it up with strong forceps, before the fragments of a stinking, 
encrusted substance, whose composition could not easily be de- 
termined, were removed. Several patients labored under excess- 
ive irritation of the bladder, and when the foreign body was 
large, many suffered for years under obstinate constipation." 

My own experience fully corroborates that of Dieffanback, 
I have often found hardening of the vaginal membrane, and 
its sensibility either destroyed, or very much heightened. 
Sometimes there are excoriations of the membrane, and not 
unfrequently, when the pessary was made of india rubber, the 
thick, encrusted substance that had formed upon it, had eaten 
holes into the instrument, making it very difficult to remove 
with safety. It is my opinion they should never be worn. 
The vaginal membrane is a tissue of so delicate and sensitive a 
nature, that it cannot, without injury, bear the continued pres- 
sure of any foreign body. 

Another artificial support it would be well to notice, on ac- 
count of its popular adoption, viz : braces, or abdominal supports 
worn outside the person. These produce more extensive de- 
rangement of the abdominal viscera, than those worn inside ; 
and not of the abdominal viscera and muscles only, for by 
their extensive pressure they check the free expansion of the 
diaphragm, and in consequence are an obstruction to the full and 
healthful inhalation or expansion of the lungs. Add to these 
the deleterious effect of their pressure upon the spine, through 
3 



40 EXPOSITION OF 

the weakening of which the whole system more or less suffers, 
and particularly the uterine organs. 

By these artificial supports, digestion is impeded, the free 
motion of the bowels is prevented, causing constipation and 
piles ; and lastly, by constantly pressing down the bowels, the 
uterus, whose supporting muscles had been weakened by pres- 
sure upon the spine, is pushed out of place, and thus the very 
disease brought on which the supporter was intended to prevent 
or cure. On removing them from persons who had worn them 
a long time, the circulation in the capillary vessels underneath 
them, has frequently been found so obstructed, that the skin 
was quite black ; and occasionally there was a large ridge swol- 
len and hard across the abdomen, just above the supporter. 

An interested advocate for supporters, remarks, that " every 
delicate lady, and in fact every female, should have a perfect 
and a pleasant and well-adjusted supporter at her command. 
That some ladies should wear them. one month in a year, and 
others are required to wear them nearly all the time." By 
advice like this, too often by the physician as well as the ven- 
der, it has become a fashionable thing for ladies, if they are 
sick, to wear a supporter, and if not to wear one for fear they 
will be. By the use of them, weakness and inaction of the 
bowels, spinal diseases and uterine difficulties are very much 
increased. 

Suppose the strong, muscular arm should be bandaged one 
month from the shoulder to the wrist. Would it not be debil- 
itated and weakened at the expiration of that time \ Or sup- 



MOTORPATHT. '41 

pose it had become weakened from some cause, and a physician 
should order it to be kept in a nicely-fitting steel case for a year, 
that it may gain strength. Would not every rational person 
denounce the direction as unwise and unnatural ? It is not 
more so than the idea of strengthening weakened abdominal 
muscles by the constant wearing of a " nicely-fitting and well- 
adjusted supporter." Keason teaches that to strengthen a 
muscle, it must have use. And how is it to obtain use — motion 
— while continually lying in a horizontal position, or tied down 
by the pressure of a supporter ? 

Headaches, weakness of the lungs, dyspepsia, pain in the 
limbs, all the various forms of hysteria, nervous sensibility, 
neuralgia, tic-doloureux, constipation, piles and urinary difficul- 
ties may be, and oftener than otherwise are, the result of 
disease of the uterus and its appendages. So intimately is this 
organ connected with the brain, that it is quite impossible for 
the one to be affected without the other's suffering. As the 
disease progresses, and by its sympathetic control over the ac- 
tion of the other organs, first one and then another become 
diseased, pain in the head and giddiness supervene, with loss 
of memory and confusion of ideas. The sufferer becomes un- 
able to read or apply the mind attentively to any subject for 
more than a few consecutive minutes. 

Her wit, vivacity and brilliancy of intellect, gradually fade. 
All the powers of the mind become weakened, and sometimes 
almost imbecile. Fretfulness, peevishness and unMndness take 
the place of amiability and affection. The mother who was 
once all devotion and love, managing her household with cheer- 



42 EXPOSITION OF 

fulness and composure, becomes complaining, peevish and irri- 
table. The wife changes from the ardent, loving, self-sacrificing 
companion, to the exacting, upbraiding and selfish invalid. 
Cares are unbearable, and life becomes a painful burthen. 

In such cases, the physical system alone should not engross the 
physician's care, leaving the mind to regulate itself. For though 
there are cases of strong-minded persons in vrhich this will be 
accomplished ; yet, in a vast majority of protracted complaints, 
where the balance between the mental and physical powers is 
lost, much is gained by treatment given in direct reference to 
both. In some, the mental activity becomes intense, and should 
be reduced ; and in others it is so obtuse as to cause the whole 
body to languish and droop, because the natural impetus which 
gave it life and action, is withheld or meted out so sparingly, as 
to barely hold the miDd and body in trembling conjunction. 

The mind should be restored to its normal action and by 
proper food and stimuli made to maintain its just ascendancy, 
before the health can be fully established. If a proper balance 
between the mental and physical system, was originally want- 
ing, it will be beyond any physician's power to create what 
never existed. But an approximation to a balance of motion 
may be obtained by skill and proper management on the part 
of the medical adviser and persevering effort by the patient. 

Young women by their erroneous physical as well as mental 
training, are often the victims of uterine disease. Their sunken 
eyes, pallid cheeks, attenuated forms, and sallow skins, proclaim 
it. Beauty flies at its insidious approach, and happy cheerful- 
ness is dispelled by its poisonous breath. The hectic flush, 



MOTORPATHY. 43 

glassy eye, distressing cough, and palpitating heart— all symp- 
toms alarming in their nature — may often be traced to ute- 
rine derangement as their cause. Erroneously educated from 
childhood, woman is constantly disobeying nature's laws, until 
sickness and suffering have become the watch- words of her life. 

True it is, that all must pass away ; that the present sphere 
of existence is not the abiding one ; and that by the habits 
civilization has established, disease has been made the passport 
to that land beyond, whose portals are pierced only by the eye of 
faith and from whence no tidings are received save those which 
fall from the tongue of prophecy. But this is no reason why 
sickness and suffering should be the accompaniment of life 
through all its stages ; or why when constitutional habits pre- 
dispose to chronic disease, the invalid should languish for 
months and years prostrated upon a bed, or confined in-doors. 

When Motorpathic principles are understood and put in 
practice, no such necessity will exist. The helpless victims of 
the so termed incurable diseases, will not be told to gird the 
loins with patience and suffer on, because for them there is no 
help. But rather wise physicians will buckle on their armor, 
and furnish them with weapons, with which they shall battle 
with their disease, and win the victory. 

Motorpathy discards the use of artifical supports and all 
harsh medicines in the cure of uterine difficulties, but is in 
itself, a system of statumination and vitalizing motion, founded 
on new pathological principles, by which permanent ernes have 
been effected with an ease and certainty, heretofore unattained 
by any system, of therapeutics. 



CHAPTER III. 

Functional Diseases — Amenorrhea — Cases — Treatment. 

Those diseases of the uterine system, which depend on an 
increased or diminished natural secretion, or upon a vitiated 
one, unaccompanied by change of place or structure in the 
organs, will be called functional diseases. Of these amenor- 
rhea — a suppression or non-appearance of the menses — will be 
the first spoken of. 

It is common to see girls, at some period between the ages 
of fourteen and seventeen, put on an appearance of over-growth. 
Their bones and sinews — the mere frame-work of the body — 
seems to have extended in advance as it were, to have got the 
start of the muscular and vital system. As health and strength 
depend upon a balance of activity or motion in all the parts, 
which gives a corresponding harmonious development of the 
whole system, this want of balance between the frame-work of 
the body and the development of muscle which gives the body 
strength, elasticity of action and gracefulness of motion ; is of 
itself a sufficient indication, that nature has not yet perfected 
the exterior physical developments which should precede the 
menses. 

It is not desirable that the menses should occur, before the 
physical system approximates to its full development. By 
stimulating diet, sedentary habits and injudicious mental train- 



MOTORPATHY. 45 

ing, it is quite common for girls at this age to show evidences 
of a plethoric state of the system. In these cases if the menses 
do not make their appearance, danger is to be apprehended, 
from the fulness of the blood-vessels which may produce hyste- 
ria, convulsions or epilepsy, or predispose to inflammations and 
congestions, particularly, of the brain or lungs. The girl, 
though apparently fresh and healthy, is not strong. She has 
flushings of the face, weakness of limbs, languor and tremors. 

In both these forms, under which there is a non-appearance 
of the menses, motion — increased action — is so obviously in- 
dicated that the more judicious physicians have generally made 
active exercise one of their prescriptions, as riding on horse- 
back, household employment, walking, &c. If to active exer- 
cise in the open air, commenced according to the strength of 
the patient, regularly taken and gradually increased, be added 
a moderate and judicious use of baths, particularly of the show- 
er and sponge bath, with a regulation of the diet according to 
the habits of the patient, no other treatment or medication 
will be necessary in ninety-five cases out of a hundred. 

Baths not taken on Motorpathic principles, or merely for the 
object of cleanliness, are comparatively of little use ; and when 
many are taken in a day, are generally directly injurious. The 
object constantly kept in view in the taking of baths, should be 
their tonic effect, which results from the impetus which they 
give to motion in the system. For this reason a cold bath 
should never be taken without first producing action in the sys- 
tem sufficient to determine the circulation to the surface. Af- 
ter a bath, brisk exercise should again be taken to produce re- 



46 EXPOSITION OF 

action and a glow of warmth upon the surface. When this 
principle of action and re-action is not recognized and acted 
upon in the use of cold baths, there is danger of chilling the 
circulation, or of occasioning congestion of some internal or- 
gan, by driving the fluids so forcibly from the surface, and neg- 
lecting to propel them back again by vigorous reaction. The 
beneficial effect of baths judiciously taken with this Motorpathic 
object in view, can hardly be too highly estimated. 

In both the forms of tardy menses under consideration, the 
diet should be of easy digestion and so chosen as to obviate any 
irregularity of bowels which may exist. It is particularly ne- 
cessary that no hard faeces should be allowed to accumulate in the 
rectum, for by their presence the uterine nerves are very much 
irritated, causing liability to hysteria or some nervous accident, 
and the circulation in the vessels is retarded, occasioning a 
hindrance of the appearance sought. The diet in the plethoric 
cases should be spare, confined mostly to milk and vegetables. 
In the others more full and nourishing, but without an admix- 
ture of rich compounds, as cake, sweetmeats and pastry, or fat 
and oily substances. 

"When the girl is seen to be improving, her countenance to 
be more animated, with less repugnance to exercise, and her 
strength increasing, no uneasiness need be felt. An unremit- 
ting perseverance in her renovated habits, will eventually assist 
nature to the accomplishment of her purpose, in perfecting the 
girl's womanhood. 

Where these means fail, or where there is great urgency of 
symptoms, a full Motorpathic treatment should be resorted to, 



MOTORPATHY. 4 7 

aided by warm or vapor baths, alternated with showers. These 
are particularly useful at those times, when nature makes peri- 
odical efforts] to bring on menstruation. Magnetism or electri- 
city is another aid, which can be beneficially applied in those 
cases, as an incentive to motion. 

In all cases of suppressed menses without the supervention 
of pregnancy, old age or an incurable disease, as phthesis and 
some others, a cure can be effected by procuring a balance of 
motion, between the two forces of the body, and keeping it ac- 
tive in all its parts. When this is done, nature requires no 
emenagogues to force her to action, which frequently leave 
such deleterious effects upon the constitution ; but quietly per- 
forms her office without pain or sympathetic disturbance. 



Mrs. , aged 23, applied for admission, Oct. 2d, 1850. 

She had a total suppression of the menses for ten months previous, 
during which time her health had rapidly declined. Her ute- 
rus was found to be considerably enlarged, being in a congested 
state. Her improvement under treatment was immediate. 
The congestion of the uterus was gradually reduced, and in six 
weeks she menstruated freely with trifling pain. 



Cases of simple amenorrhea have seldom applied to this 
Institution for relief. They have generally been in complication 



48 EXPOSITION OF 

with other diseases. The simple forms of uterine disease are 
not so often met singly, as in combination with other difficulties. 
At all events I have selected cases as they usually occur under 
my observation and I think such as the physician frequently 
meets in practice. 



Miss , aged 30, entered the Institution, Oct. 31, 1850, 

for relief from a complication of difficulties, following in the 
train of suppressed catamenia. Ten years previous, she had 
had a suppression of the menses for several months. When 
they at length made their appearance, (probably through the 
improper use of emenagogues,) they were too frequent and her 
flowings immoderate. These attacks of profuse menstruation 
for months together, had alternated with suppressions of longer 
or shorter duration, up to the time of her entering the In- 
stitution. Her nervous system was much deranged. She 
could not tolerate the presence of company — had severe peri- 
odical headaches — turns of great anxiety of mind — had an 
habitually impaired memory — could sit up but little — was dys- 
peptic, and had frequent diarrheas. She was also troubled 
with strangury and a very offensive leucorrhea, with much 
heat and pain along the spine. Four months after, she return- 
ed to her home, not robust and hardy but in comfortable health, 
her diseases cured. Though not at all times free from pain and 
uneasiness in different parts of the system, she could endure a 
good amount of exercise, and walk miles at a time without in- 
ury. 



MOTORPATHY. 49 

M rs# } aged 30, applied to the Motorpathic Institu- 
tion, Kochester, New York, on May 29, 1850. She had been 
suffering seven years from a combination of diseases. At the 
time of her application, her constitution had become a perfect 
ruin. She was suffering from spinal irritation occasioning pa- 
roxysms of pain, also severe headaches accompanied with heat 
and a sense of heaviness. She had leucorrhea and a retrover- 
sion of the uterus, and her system had become so prostrated by 
the ravages of these diseases, that for eleven months previous 
she had not menstruated. Supporters and pessaries had been 
worn without benefit, and the only effect of the powerful emena- 
gogues which her physician had prescribed, was to sink her 
still lower. Her stomach suffered much sympathetically, only 
retaining the lightest food. When under treatment the uterus 
soon assumed and maintained its natural position — (see Ute- 
rine Displacements, Chap, ix.,) and she improved rapidly. In 
five weeks her menses appeared, occasioning little pain or dis- 
turbance, and occurring regularly afterward. At the expiration 
of ten weeks, she returned to her home, cured. During the 
last weeks of her stay, she took daily walks of miles at a time 
in addition to the other exercises required. 



Mrs. , aged 23, entered this Institution, Oct. 3d, 1850. 

She had been in ill-health one year ; during which time there 
had been a total suppression of the menses. This was a very 
singular case. There was a tense contraction of the abdominal 



50 EXPOSITION OF 

and intercostal muscles, so that the ribs, chest, and abdomen 
on pressure, presented the appearance of an unyielding, solid 
substance. She was much emaciated and her countenance pre- 
sented a peculiarly cadaverous appearance. She had spinal 
weakness, pain in the left hip, and very weak nerves. This 
case was unlike any other which had previously come under 
observation. When she had been under treatment three weeks, 
the ribs had become to quite a degree flexible, and the abdomi- 
nal muscles yielding and elastic. Five and a half weeks after 
her entrance, the catamenia made its appearance, and at the 
end of eight weeks, she left with apparently a perfect restora- 
tion. 



In speaking of treatment, it would be impossible to enume- 
rate and explain all the different modes and means used, to 
vivify and make active every part of the body ; and not only 
to establish a balance of motion in the system as a whole, but 
to produce a vigorous action in every organ and gland, in 
every part and point of the body. Suffice it to say that every 
therapeutic agent is chosen with direct reference to its capabil- 
ity of increasing, producing, or continuing the action of the 
motion ; whether it be water, electricity, exercise, medicine, or 
any other means. The test of choice is its availability to this 
one end — the establishment of motion. Among these thera- 
peutic agents, that part of Motorpathic treatment given person- 
ally, which is a process of statuminating vitalization, stands at 
the head. — (See page 24.) Diet, the use of water, magnetism, 



MOTORPATHY. 51 

dry-cupping, various modes of exercise, and medication by 
internal or external application, are resorted to, when the occa- 
sion demands, as aids to a more speedy realization of the 
object proposed. 

Various baths are used, modified in temperature, to suit the 
exigencies of the case. Those most estimated are the shower, 
the sponge, the sitz and vapor baths ; douche baths variously 
applied ; the acid and sheet baths ; with warm, cold and alka- 
lina packs. "Warm baths with few exceptions are immediately 
followed with shower-baths of a more or less reduced tem- 
perature. The two in connection have proved very beneficial 
in cases of obstinately torpid action, slow circulation, and where 
it was difficult by other means to produce a perspiration, or 
bring the circulation briskly to the surface. Dry-cupping is 
also much esteemed, especially in the removal of stricture and 
to aid in the resolution of deep-seated or organic pain. 



CHAPTER IV 



Dysmenorrhea, — Cases. 

The influences of an artificial life have become so inwoven 
in the constitution of females, that the periodical appearance of 
the catamenia is seldom unattended with pain. There are rare 
cases of menstruation so healthy, as to be unattended through- 
out, by physical disturbance. But in the vast majority of cases, 
there is more or less pain about the loins and through the 
pelvis, with a sensation of fullness and weight. Heaviness 
and pain in the head often precede and attend menstruation ; 
also pain in the lower limbs, with weakness and a sense of 
dragging in their movements. These symptoms are so com- 
mon, that unless they become very much aggravated, medical 
advice is seldom sought. 

In that state of aggravated accession of pain, at the menstrual 
period termed dysmenorrhea, the unhappy sufferer is eager to 
obtain relief; and failing of finding it, is apt to run from one 
remedy to another, in a too often fruitless search. The pain 
frequently comes on in paroxysms resembling the earlier labor 
pains. Sometimes they are attended with convulsions, at others 
with some febrile excitement. Usually the face is pale and 
sunken during the continuance of the severe pain. Sometimes 
the pain precedes the menses ; at others they come on together, 
and usually the pain abates when the menses flow freely. 



MOTORPATHY. 53 

There are cases in which the pain continues throughout the 
period, and others in which it commences toward the close, 

Persons of full habits are thought to be more subject to this 
disease than others. Certain it is, that persons of ardent tem- 
perament and sensitive natures, who are predisposed to nervous 
attacks and to hysteria, are most usually its victims. The dis- 
ease has been allowed to depend on a highly irritable state of 
the uterus. This irritability is caused by a partial stoppage of 
the nervous circulation through the organ. The vita-motive 
power being obstructed in its passage, the minute mouths of 
the arteries and the secreting vessels, are not sufficiently vital- 
ized to act freely, and a partial congestion takes place. 

It is a law of nature, that in whatever part of the body extra 
labor is required, there the vital forces are summoned in increas- 
ed quantities to perform it. And when they are thrown out of 
balance, and do not readily attain their object, pain is the con- 
sequence; and that pain is in proportion to the amount of 
nervous action or nervous sympathies involved. 

A full Motorpathic treatment, including baths and magnetism, 
has not been known to fail in procuring healthy menstruation. 
In some habits slight pain is felt at the recurrence of the periods 
■after a course of Motorpathic treatment, but less than that gen- 
erally attending females who consider themselves healthy. 
Still, in the majority of cases of dysmenorrhea, who have taken 
this treatment and who continue daily active exercise, and 
-approximate to an assimilation of their habits to the laws of 
health, menstruation comes on without premonition. 



54 EXPOSITION OF 

Miss , aged 18, entered the Institution, June 11th, 1851, 

for treatment for dysmenorrhea. Menstruation had been pain- 
ful since its first occurrence, which was in her fourteenth year. 
During the eighteen months previous to her entrance, her gen- 
eral health had suffered considerably. She had pain in the 
back most of the time, which was found to proceed from the 
irritation attending the commencement of a spinal curvature. 
She had some symptoms of dyspepsia, raising portions of her 
food immediately after meals. She was troubled with pain in 
the head — had a slight cough, with some pain in the upper 
part of the chest — also had ulceration of the bronchia, for which 
nitrate of silver had been used, giving but temporary relie£ 
Her improvement was immediate. She left at the expiration 
of eleven weeks with better health than she had ever before 
possessed. Letters have been received from her since, giving 
flattering intimations of the strength and elasticity which her 
constitution is acquiring. She has had no return of painful 
menstruation. 



Mrs. , aged 38, commenced Motorpathic treatment, June 

17 th, 1851. Her health had been declining seven years; the 
last rive of which she had been unable to walk, and was con- 
fined to her room. During the first three years of her declining 
health, she suffered excruciating pain at the time of her men- 
strual period. Since that, or for the last four years, the pain 
at her periods had not been so severe. A small tumor was felt 



MOTORPATHT. 55 

in the abdomen, just above the pubes, which she had observed 
there for some three years. She complained of a "distressed 
feeling," rather than a pain in the region of the tumor. On 
examination, I satisfied myself that it was simple enlargement 
of the uterus, an opinion which I did not see occasion to change. 
Her menstruation had occurred regularly, or nearly so, during 
the whole time. Her nervous system was very much prostra- 
ted — her stomach inactive — and her bowels irregular. She 
staid in the Institution ten weeks, in which time the uterus was 
reduced to its natural size. She left with comfortable health. 
She was not strong, but able to take walks of one or two miles 
at a time, and a proportionate quantity of other exercise. 



Miss , aged 25, entered the Institution, November, 1850, 

Her health had been declining eight years. Her first disease 
was dysmenorrhea of a very painful character. It continued 
to be the primary cause of her after suffering. She would be 
taken at her periods with chills, some pain in the back and 
pain in the head so violent as to occasion delirium. The inten- 
sity and duration of these attacks continued increasing until 
she was prostrated upon her bed, to which she had been confined 
the last five years. During much of this time her nerves had 
become so weak and easily irritated as to render her unable to 
bear the presence of any one but her nurse. There was con- 
stant pain in the lower cervical and dorsal vertebrae, and in the 

right side and upper part of the chest. She had acidity of the 
4 



56 EXPOSITION OF 

stomach, indigestion, cold hands and feet, palpitation of the 
heart, and was very much emaciated. On examination^ her 
uterus was found to be fallen so low as to rest upon the perineum, 
and in a very congested state, being more than twice the usual 
size. Chronic inflammation of the organ had supervened from 
its continued functional derangement, the displacement having 
been caused by the severity and expulsive tendency of the peri- 
odic pains. Her improvement under treatment was not at first 
rapid, but after a few weeks, the enlargement of the uterus was 
reduced, and its ascension to a natural position maintained, when 
her improvement became more satisfactory, and in three and a 
half months she left in good health. Her dysmenorrhea was 
so far cured, that menstruation occasioned but slight disturbance 
of the system. She took her exercises and walks, during her 
periods, without detriment. She walked habitually before 
leaving the Institution, from five to ten miles daily. When she 
returned to her home, she commenced house-cleaning, and en- 
tered at once upon the laborious duties of the household. 



CHAPTER V. 



Menorrhagia. — Cases. 

The term Menorrhagia, is used to denote morbidly profuse 
menstruation, whether that discharge be accompanied by the 
loss of pure blood or not. 

Very many females suffer from this disease, in a more or less 
severe form. When, at each period, the amount of this fluid 
secreted, is beyond that compatible with health ; or when a 
quantity of pure blood, known by the presence of coagula, es- 
capes with it, the disease is very insidious, and the constitu- 
tion frequently becomes undermined before absolute danger is 
thought to exist. In this state of the system, other constitu- 
tional diseases are apt to develope themselves : as consumption, 
dropsy, and the severer forms of uterine disease, particularly 
displacements and offensive leucorrheas. 

In the more severe forms of menorrhagia, whether active or 
passive, the danger is often imminent from the sudden loss of 
blood. When the immediate danger is passed, the strength is 
so prostrated, that the system has but time to imperfectly rally 
before the occurrence of the next period. Frequently there is 
no respite, one period extending into another, so that there is 
no freedom from flowing, the only variations being times of its 
greater or less severity. In this state of the disease, the patient 



58 EXPOSITION OF 

is often unable to take the least exercise, or even be raised from 
the bed, without occasioning an increase of the discharge. 

The complexion becomes bloodless, sallow or chalky ; the 
countenance pinched or bloated ; the feet and ankles swollen ; and. 
frequently the whole body becomes anasarcous. Palpitations 
of the heart, tremors, headaches, and a sense of exhaustion at- 
tend this stage. Syncope is often an alarming attendant, and 
the stomach refuses almost all efforts at digestion, so that there 
is little means of repairing the great waste of the system. 

It will be seen by the cases given, that Motorpathy, by in- 
citing a free motion of the life-giving, life-sustaining, brain- 
principle, in the uterine organs, and stimulating the healthful 
attractions and repulsions, between this vita-motive power and 
the arterial circulation ; gives new energy to the functions of the 
uterus, and causes the open mouths of the arteries on its in- 
ternal surface to contract. The continued escape of blood is 
thus prevented, and by frequent repetition, a habit of action and 
reaction or energetic vital motion is induced, which strengthens 
the organs and prevents a relapse. 

The application of cold water, douches and friction are es- 
sential aids in establishing a just equilibrium of motion. The 
diet is a matter of much consequence, which should be unstimu- 
lating and light, but nourishing and mostly composed of fari- 
naceous substances. The air of the sick-room should be kept 
pure by constant ventillation. 



MOTORPATHY. 59 

Mrs. j aged 36, entered the Institution, July, 1851. She 

had been subject to profuse flowing for several years. For five 
months previous to her entrance, she had been but a small por- 
tion of the time free from flowing; and was then suffering 
severely from it. She had been so reduced by it, as to be unable 
to feed herself. She complained much of her head — was very 
weak and nervous — had irritation of the bronchia — was chilly 
and cold most of the time — was much emaciated — very pale, 
with a pinched expression of the countenance — and her menses 
had never been very regular. Previous to the time of her 
being subject to attacks of menorrhagia, she had sometimes 
passed several months between her periods of menstruation. 
She had been at different times under the care of some ten 
physicians ; had worn a supporter four years, and had attended 
two hydropathic institutions ; one, four ; the other, six months. 
On examination, the uterus was found to be much relaxed, lay- 
ing lower in the vagina than natural, with the os-uteri open, so 
as easily to admit the finger. Contraction of the uterus and 
its muscles was effected, and after a few weeks' treatment, her 
menorrhagia entirely disappeared. Her uterine functions were 
restored to a healthy condition, and she was able to endure 
more bodily exercise and fatigue than she had for many years 
previous. 



Mrs. , aged 32, entered the Motorpathic Institution, 

August 7th, 1851. She was very feeble — unable to sit up or 
bear her weight upon her feet. She had been subject to violent 



60 EXPOSITION OF 

attacks of menorrhagia, and at that time was flowing contin- 
ually from one period to another ; having no respite or time of 
complete cessation between. Her friends supposed her to be in 
the last stages of consumption. She had never been very 
healthy — was of a nervous temperament — and highly impres- 
sible. She had suffered many years from chronic inflammation 
of the kidneys — had prolapsus uteri, with constant pain in the 
back, increased on slight exertion — had spinal irritation — gen- 
eral weakness of the lungs — short, dry cough — and a catarrhal 
affection of the head, throat, and bronchia. For years she had 
been subject to a discharge of bloody matter, from the throat 
and mouth during sleep : also had eruptions upon the skin, and 
was highly scrofulous. The physiological condition most in 
her favor, was cheerful, mental activity ; and her best symptom, 
a firm determination to get well. This hopeful determination 
is very desirable in a sick person. Then the will of the invalid, 
co-operates with the efforts of the physician, and thus the bar- 
rier is doubly guarded against the further enroachments of dis- 
ease. Through the powerful influence of statuminating vitali- 
zation, the uterus was made to resume its natural position and 
healthy action — consequently the hemorrhage ceased. She re- 
mained ten weeks and improved in that time so rapidly, as to 
take longer walks than she had before done in fifteen years. 
On leaving she expressed her conviction that all difficulty and 
weakness of the uterine organs were removed. Her other com- 
plaints were very much benefited, but the time was too short 
for their radical cure. 



MOTORPATHY. 61 

Mrs. , aged 31, commenced Motorpathic treatment, 

Sept. 1851. She bad been out of bealth eigbt years, and tbe 
last three years of tbe time confined to her bed. She had 
menorrhagia of so severe a character, that, for the year pre- 
vious, she had not been raised in bed. Her vitality was very 
low. The sense of feeling was very much deranged over the 
entire surface of the body, excepting the hands. The uterus 
and adjoining external organs were completely paralysed. In 
other parts of the body, this obtuseness to the sense of touch, 
appeared to be in the skin only. 

Ten days after commencing treatment, she walked with assist- 
ance through a long hall. Her improvement was rapid, con- 
sidering the circumstances of the case ; for paralysis of the ute- 
rus and external organs is one of the most obstinate diseases, 
which attacks those parts. But it is perfectly curable when 
sufficient time is given, by Motorpathic treatment. This lady's 
system was fully aroused from its state of torpidity, into one of 
natural action, and the sense of feeling perfectly restored. The 
following extract is from a letter received from her, Nov., 1852 : 

" I am very pleasantly situated in the capitol of , and 

have been remarkably well since I left you. I have traveled 
1100 miles in the last fortnight, without any inconvenience or 
injury. If I could have the same regularity here, that I had 
while in your Institution, there would be nothing to hinder me 
from restoration to good health. But I am so happy in being 
once more able to attend church, and engage in the pleasures of 
society, from which I have been so long excluded. I should 
be pleased to hear from the Hall, for my associations were so 



62 EXPOSITION OF 

pleasant while there, that anything from that place would be 
interesting to me." 



Mrs. aged 42, entered the Institution, May 15, 1852. 

She had been out of health many years, her first complaint 
having been 2^olapsus uteri, brought on by hard labor. At 
the time of entering the Institution, menorrhagia was the most 
urgent symptom. She had been two years unable to bear her 
weight upon her feet, the least exertion or mental anxiety, 
bringing on a turn of flowing. She complained of dizziness, 
" roaring, and all kinds of noise in the head," attended with 
attacks of severe neuralgic pain. She suffered from general 
derangement of the nervous system, spinal irritation, urinary 
difficulties, constant pain in the back, and costiveness. She 
remained eleven weeks, and left cured. A lady lately coming 
to the Institution through her recommendation, says that " she 
is quite well, enjoying better health than ever before." 



Mrs. , aged 23, had a child about a year previous to the 

time of her entering the Institution. Her health had been very 
delicate since. About three months after the birth of her child, 
she had a severe attack of uterine hemorrhage or menorrhagia. 
These attacks of flowing continued to harass her once in four or 
eight days, up to the time of her entering this Institution. 



MOTORPATHY. 63 

These attacks had prostrated her very low, and towards the 
last, they had been accompanied with vomiting and convulsions. 
In the interval, she had a profuse leucorrhea. After six weeks' 
stay, she returned home, free from leucorrhea and flowing, her 
general health much improved, able to sit up all day and to 
walk from half a mile to a mile at a time. 



Mrs. W — '■ — , aged 36, had a curvature in the lower part of 
the spine, making one hip higher than the other. Two 
years previous, she had been taken with severe pain in the small 
of the back, and profuse flowing, which reduced her very much, 
and left her subject to similar attacks from the least exertion. 
She sometimes flowed so profusely as to cause her friends and 
physician to despair of her recovery. «Her feet and ankles 
were swollen, and she suffered much pain in the head and face 
from catarrh. She returned to her home in two months, cured, 
with the exception of one hip remaining a little larger than 
the other. She took a large amount of exercise — calisthenic, 
gymnastic, &c, besides walking a number of miles daily, before 
she left 



CHAPTER VI 



Leucorrhea. — Cases. 



Of all the prevalent maladies that affect the system of wo- 
man, there will perhaps none be found that attacks so large a 
number of all classes and ages, as that of leucorrhea ; or as 
it is sometimes termed, fluor-albus. This disease is a morbid 
secretion of whitish or milky mucus from the vagina or uterus, 
and is vulgarly called " whites." Perhaps there is no other 
disease, that is so much neglected by females, or about which 
there is so much ignorance existing, as upon leucorrhea and 
its consequences. 

It so completely destroys the beauty and brilliancy of a wo- 
man, that as soon as its presence is detected, it should be arrest- 
ed. Its first symptoms are a pale, sallow countenance — deject- 
ed spirits — failure of appetite — debility and languor. In its 
milder form many suppose it a natural secretion, alternating 
with menstruation ; and have allowed it to progress, attribut- 
ing its deleterious consequences to some other cause, until sym- 
pathetic or chronic disease manifests itself in some part of the 
system. But in perfect health there is no such discharge. It 
Is a diseased secretion of the uterine and vaginal mucus 
membrane. "In health there is an accurate relation be- 
tween the amount of secretion and the purpose which it 
serves; viz: lubrication of the surface. When, from any 



MOTORPATHY. 65 

cause, its amount is increased beyond what is necessary for 
this important end, it is morbid." Every form of it, whether 
mild or malignant, acute or chronic, is a disease, and should be 
checked as soon as possible. All dread the results of a seated 
cough, yet it is no more baneful in its effects, than a chronic 
leucorrhea^ 

There is such a close union existing between the mind and 
body — between mental and physical disturbances — and in wo- 
man particularly, there is such a close connexion between her 
brain and uterus, that an impression made upon the one is re- 
flected upon the other. "Whenever the mind is oppressed by 
grief — whenever the affections are aroused to a morbid action 
— or the passions become irritated and excited — a sympathetic 
action ensues upon the delicate and sensitive tissues which line 
the vagina and uterus, and a diseased action sets in, which if 
not arrested at the commencement, will seriously affect the 
health, and, in the end, endanger the life. On the contrary, it 
is quite impossible for the uterine organs to be excited, without 
a responsive action taking place in the brain. 

Hence the associations of every day life — the luxurious in- 
dolence of wealth — the fashionable style of living — crowded 
assemblies and heated rooms — stimulating diet and the light 
literature of the day, all conspire to render woman a fit subject 
for leucorrhea and other uterine diseases. On the other hand, 
the absorption of the mind in intense study, withholds the vita- 
motive power from the uterus, thus producing a loss of harmo- 
ny between the brain and uterus, and again diseased action en- 
sues. The same as when, to feed the action of the brain, the 



66 EXPOSITION OF 

vita-motive power is withheld from the stomach, weakening 
the digestive functions and causing dyspepsia. 

The practice of introducing young girls into society, at the 
age of twelve and fourteen, cannot be censured too severely. 
Xature is effecting a change in their constitution at that age ; 
organs are developing themselves ; the secretions are changing ; 
the mental capacities are enlarging and strengthening; the 
imagination is finding new themes for contemplation and the 
affections are rapidly expanding. The passion of sexual pre- 
ference, which before had been dormant, now rises into being, 
causing her to retreat with glowing cheek and brightened eye 
into the solitudes of her chamber, that she may brood undis- 
turbed over the new thoughts and feelings that are thronging 
within; changing in a few months the light, gay, and joyous 
child, to the modest, timid, bashful maiden. In this state she 
requires not only that the watchful eye of a mother's love 
should note every change in the physical system, but also that 
her mind should be guarded with the utmost care, to prevent a 
sickly imagination from taking the place of purity and chaste- 
ness of thought as well as act. 

From these considerations, how can a mother, who values 
her daughter's highest welfare, expose her at such an era of 
her life to the impure air of a crowded room, where she will 
receive flatteries and attentions from the other sex, many of 
whom are far older than herself, who only soil and stain the 
purity and freshness of this fragile flower, whose leaves are but 
just unfolding. What can be more dangerous than to submit 
her at this delicate period to the intoxicating excitement of the 



MOTORPATHT. 67 

whirling dance in mixed assemblies, where, by continued, re- 
peated, and violent exertion, the blood is sent leaping through 
its channels instead of circulating quietly, thereby generating 
such an- amount of heat, as to weaken every muscle, and debil- 
itate the whole system. 

In this changing condition of her constitution, every scene 
which acts upon the imagination, affections, and passions, vibrates 
upon the uterus and vaginal membrane, exciting their sen- 
sibilities, producing irritation and disease, and in many in- 
stances inducing secret practices that corrode both mind and 
body, and hurries their victim to a premature grave. Would 
that every mother could realize her responsibilities and the dan- 
ger accruing to her daughter from negligence of the causes and 
results of this disease. At its first approach, daily and faithful 
ablutions, a well-regulated diet, invigorating exercise in the open 
air, early hours and abstinence from all causes of excitement, 
should be carefully attended to, in order to strengthen the 
general health, and remove through that the local irritation, so 
as to prevent any farther increase of such a loathsome malady. 

But young girls in their puberty are not the only persons who, 
by over-exertion, or excitement, or the disobedience of physical 
laws, are subjects of leucorrhea. Young and married ladies 
are often even greater sufferers from it. There are compara- 
tively but a small number who do not, at some period of their 
lives, show visible signs of the encroachment of this disease. 
Some who are robust and vigorous in their physical formation 
will suffer with it through life without much inconvenience 
but they grow old prematurely in their habits and appearance, 



68 EXPOSITION OF 

and their life is much shortened. Its effects are too visible 
in the face, ever to be mistaken. It is the destroyer of both 
beauty and health, for the perfection of the latter is the full 
development of the former. 

Nearly two-thirds of all organic uterine diseases, are pre- 
ceded by leucorrhea. This disease is a constant drain upon 
the system. Every organ separates its secretion from the 
blood ; and when the vaginal or uterine membrane secrets 
more than is necessary to lubricate its surface, that surplus is 
taken from the blood, which should sustain other parts of the 
body. By this diseased action, some persons will lose two or 
three ounces in a day. Let such an one think of the debility 
that would ensue, if that amount of blood were daily taken 
away by bleeding. Yet the drain by leucorrhea is more 
injurious than bleeding, for it not only takes away so much 
nourishment and strength from the whole body, but by the 
irritation caused by it, inflammation of the uterine organs, 
menorrhagia, displacements, and other organic and functional 
derangements may ensue. Chlorosis, which perhaps excels 
every other disease in its beauty-destroying influence, is very 
frequently the result of fluor-albus. A sallow skin — colorless 
lips — emaciated form — cold hands — a shrunken, wan, despair- 
ing countenance, and a foetid breath are marks of its inroads. 

Ladies of plethoric habits often suffer from fluor-albus, in 
consequence of their high living, and through sympathy it 
affects the mucous membrane in the whole system, and 
engenders disease in every part. If women would avoid this 
unwholesome malady, they must deny themselves many of the 



MOTORPATHY. 69 

stimulating dishes, which are placed on the table to tempt their 
appetites, and take regular exercise in the open air, and be par- 
ticular in their daily ablutions. It is an erroneous idea existing 
in the minds of many, that daily bathing the whole body in 
cold water, particularly about the loins, is injurions to health. 
The want of proper cleanliness is often the cause of leucorrhea. 

The excessive reading of works of fiction, also causes this 
disease. By enervating the mind and morbidly exciting the 
imagination, subjects of thought and meditation are presented, 
that awaken the passions, and operate directly upon the vaginal 
membrane. Miscarriages and frequent child-bearing, as well 
as uterine displacements, produce leucorrhea as a sequence, by 
irritating and debilitating the uterus, and preparing it for still 
more extensive disease. The suppression of the menses, sud- 
den checking of the perspiration, the repelling of milk in the 
breasts, protracted lactation and a pregnant uterus, are often 
causes of leucorrhea. In the latter case, the ovum is separated 
by the slightest cause, so that extreme quiet is necessary during 
the first few weeks. In the latter months of pregnancy, fluor- 
albus may be rather looked upon as a relief, if not excessive, 
for the pressure of the gravid uterus, and the great determina- 
tion of blood to that portion of the system, frequently produces 
symptoms of heat, weight and discomfort, which are relieved by 
this discharge. The use of pessaries, or other foreign substances, 
introduced into the vagina for other uses, are often the unsus- 
pected causes of long-standing leucorrhea. 

In chronic leucorrhea, the discharge is more or less constant 
and profuse, mucus or purulent, or a mixture of both, and may 



10 EXPOSITION OF 

become green and offensive. The quantity poured out is often 
very abundant, sometimes amounting to a pint and a half in 
twenty-four hours; " it will then be expelled in gushes on any 
change of posture." In these cases there is " a very relaxed 
vagina, often accompanied by prolapsus of the uterus ; there is 
great emaciation and debility, the eyes are hollow, the face pale 
or chlorotic, the pulse feeble and rapid, the feet often anasarcous, 
the respiration short and labored, to which succeed palpitation 
of the heart, dragging pain in the back, inability to exertion, 
profuse nocturnal perspirations. Unless remedial efforts be suc- 
cessful, after a protracted scene of much general suffering, the 
patient dies, exhausted." 

When the vital forces each contribute its just share to the 
support of motion in the uterine system, healthy functional 
action is the result. Statuminating vitalization is a reliable 
agent for producing this effect. It may be aided by baths, par- 
ticularly the hip bath, by injecting tepid or cold water into the 
vagina, by the application of magnetism, (usually from an elec- 
tro-magnetic machine,) by dry-cupping applied to the sacrum 
and groins, and by whatever tends to invigorate the system, 
strengthen the ^muscles, and directly or indirectly contributes 
to the support of motion in the body, or to its equalization or 
harmony of action in its different parts. 



Miss m — , aged 20, had been in delicate health since puberty. 
Menstruation had never occurred with her at regular periods, 



MOTORPATHY. 7l 

and she suffered constantly from leucorrhea. Her back and 
abdominal viscera were much weakened. She was very ner- 
vous, had wakeful nights, was easily excited ; there was de- 
rangement of her digestive functions, irregularity of the bowels 
and piles. The morbid secretions were soon corrected by this 
vitalizing treatment, and a complete change, produced in her 
constitutional habits. She has often been heard from since, 
and continues in the enjoyment of good health. 



Miss , aged 24, commenced treatment, Sept. 1849, for 

leucorrhea, which had brought on a general weakness of the 
nervous system, and hysteria. She was of a full habit, with a 
craving appetite. She frequently had a flushed countenance, 
and to an ordinary observer, put on the appearance of robust 
health ; but any trifling excitement would throw her into par- 
oxysms of hysteria, frightful to witness. Three months' treat- 
ment brought her uterine organs into a state of healthy action, 
her general health became firm, and she was no more troubled 
with that distressing disease, hysteria. 



Mrs. , aged 27, entered the Institution, Nov. 1849. She 

had suffered from leucorrhea many years. During the last four 
or five years it had become very offensive, and of various colors, 
changing from red to green. Her periods were painful, and she 



72 EXPOSITION OF 

had a very weak back, attended with heat and pain. Prolap- 
sus uteri had come on, and the last three years she had been 
confined to her bed. After six weeks' treatment, she returned 
home in comfortable health, free from leucorrhea, and the pro- 
lapsus uteri cured. 



Miss , aged 23, commenced treatment, April, 1850. 

Had been in ill health three years ; system very much out of 
tone — somewhat dyspeptic, obstinately costive, had bilious vom- 
iting, cold hands and feet, and weak lungs. She suffered from 
neuralgia, had spasms, had long been troubled with leucorrhea, 
and later with prolapsus uteri. She left six weeks after, in 
good health, relieved of all her troubles. She has since mar- 
ried, and continues in good health. 



Miss , aged 26, had been out of health four years. Her 

first disease was leucorrhea. She had become very nervous, 
was costive, had painful menstruation and a disordered stomach. 
For a year past she had suffered from prolapsus uteri, brought 
on bv the continued weakening effects of leucorrhea. After 
nine weeks' treatment, she left cured, and has continued in good 
health since, now over two vears, 



MOTORPATHY. 7 3 

Leucorrhea is nearly, if not always, an attendant -symptom 
of the displacements of the uterus, particularly of prolapsus. 
In these cases the displacement must be reduced before any 
treatment will be found to have much effect in lessening the 
discharge. As long as the irritation of the displacement is 
present as an exciting cause, little can be done in controlling 
the secretion. But in Motorpathic treatment, where the reduc- 
tion of these is rendered easy and certain, the difficulty of cur- 
ing leucorrhea is very much lessened. The statuminating 
vitalization, which imparts vigor to the uterine organs, sufficient 
to enable them to maintain their position, cannot but stimulate 
to more healthy action in their secreting vessels. No difficulty 
has been found in bringing the organs to a healthy condition 
where leucorrhea has been dependant upon functional derange- 
ment, or upon the irritation proceeding from displacements. 
When leucorrhea proceeds from the disorganising progress of 
some disease of the uterus or its appendages, it puts on a very 
obstinate character, and sometimes baffles all attempts at con- 
trol. In these cases, leucorrhea is not the disease. The pres- 
ence of a discharge resembling leucorrhea, is only symptomatic 
of a worse, and too frequently of a fatal malady. Carcinoma, 
except in its earliest stages, I have never seen cured. Schirrous 
formations in the uterus, and very painful ulcerations of the 
cervix uteri, which put on a cancerous appearance, have with 
more or less difficulty been cured, but against the ravages of 
seated cancer, Motorpathy has as yet been powerless. 



CHAPTER VII 



Irritable Uterus. — Cases. 

Irritable uterus, or, as others have called the same disease, 
neuralgia of the uterus, is a disease to which the attention 
of practitioners has not, till of late, been called. It is generally 
thought to be of comparatively rare occurrence, though from 
my own experience, I should think it a frequent attendant of 
displacements. I have usually found it connected with an irri- 
table state of the vagina, " characterised by excessive tenderness 
when the lining membrane is touched by the finger, or the 
male organ ; hence sexual intercourse cannot be indulged, or if 
it be" it occasions much pain. Dr. Dunglison remarks that, 
" the affection is apt to resist every effort of treatment, so that 
the patient is compelled to endure it through life ; and to avoid 
those exciting influences which she knows develop e suffering." 
The symptoms of an irritable uterus cannot be better described 
than in the words of Dr. Gooch : " A patient complains of pain 
in the lowest part of the abdomen, along the brim of the pel- 
vis, and often, also, in the loins. The pain is worse when she 
is up and taking exercise, and less when she is at rest in the 
horizontal posture ; in this respect it resembles that of prolap- 
sus uteri, but there is this difference, that in the latter, if the 
patient lies down, she soon becomes quite easy ; but in the com- 
plaint of which I am speaking, the recumbent posture, although 



MOTORPATHY. 75 

it diminishes, does not remove the pain. It is always present 
in some degree, and severe paroxysms often occur, although the 
patient has been recumbent for a long time. If the uterus is 
examined, it is found to be exquisitely tender, the finger can 
be introduced into the vagina, and pressed against its sides 
without causing uneasiness, but as soon as it reaches and is 
pressed against the uterus, it gives exquisite pain. This ten- 
derness, however, varies at different times, according to the de- 
gree of pain which has been latterly experienced. The neck and 
body of the uterus feel slightly swollen, but this condition also 
exists in different degrees, sometimes sufficiently manifest, some- 
times scarcely or not at all perceptible. Excepting, however, 
this tenderness, and occasionally this swelling, or rather tension, 
the uterus feels perfectly natural in structure ; there is no evi- 
dence of scirrhus in the neck, the orifice is not misshapen, its 
edges are not indurated. The patient, finding her pain greatly 
increased by rising and walking, soon learns to relieve herself 
by lying on the sofa, and at length spends nearly her whole 
time there. Notwithstanding this precaution, there is always a 
considerable degree of uneasiness, but this frequently increases 
to severe pain. These paroxysms generally come on either a 
few days before menstruation, or (as is the case in many instan- 
ces,) a few days afterwards." 

He speaks of the disease as one of great obstinacy, and of 
his mode of treatment, as having been tardy in efficacy in most 
cases, and vain in some ; and wishes he had a shorter and surer 
mode of cure to communicate. 

His treatment consisted mainly in confinement to the hori- 



*76 EXPOSITION OF 

zontal posture which he enjoined strictly, depletion, narcotics 
and external irritation. And this, with some variations, has 
been the course generally followed by practitioners since. 

The Motorpathic mode of treatment is almost diametrically 
opposed to this, and in the great number of cases which have 
been treated by it, there have been none who were not greatly 
relieved and made comfortable, and the most were perfectly 
cured. It has always been thought that those cases which 
coulcl not be said to be cured, might have been perfectly res- 
tored had they remained under treatment a sufficient length 
of time. But where a lady remains but a few weeks, for the 
removal of a maladv of so obstinate a nature, it cannot be 
expected that a restoration to perfect health, can always be the 
result. 

Soothing applications, modified by degrees as they can be 
borne without pain to invigorating ones, have been found to 
aid in lessening the irritation. Douche baths, graduated in 
force and temperature as the parts can bear, have been of essen- 
tial aid in perfecting the balance of motion in the organs, and 
preventing a relapse after the irritation had been allayed and 
the tenderness controlled by the process of vitalization. Fomen- 
tations, warm hip baths, vapor baths, and dry cupping aid in 
alleviating the paroxysms of pain. Warm bathing should only 
be resorted to in cases of emergency, unless the patient is able 
to bear the application of the cold shower or sheet bath after, 
as it has a relaxing effect upon the system, and suppresses a 
vigorous re-action, instead of promoting it. 



MOTORPATHY. 77 

Mrs. A , aged 32, of an excitable temperament,. applied to 

the Motorpathic Institution for relief from an irritable state of 
the uterus and vagina, from which she had suffered twelve 
years. She had no children. Sexual intercourse gave great 
pain, in so much that it had been a prohibited thing during 
the most of her married life. She suffered much pain in the 
pelvis and loins, which extended also down the limbs. Pain in 
the left side was very troublesome, extending across the abdo- 
men from the left hip. Her circulation was a little accelerated 
at all times, and the least emotion or excitement rendered it 
much more so. She had been able to take but little exercise, 
and was subject to paroxysms of severe pain, sometimes lasting 
two or three days ; at which times she suffered intensely. 
These usually came on a little previous to menstruation. Her 
lungs were weak. She was subject to attacks of bronchial irri- 
tation and cough, which would subside in a few weeks, and 
soon after disappear ; leaving the lungs and bronchial tubes 

apparently free from disease. On examination per vaginam, 

* 

the whole surface of the vagina and uterus was found to be in 
an exquisitely tender state. No alteration of position could be 
detected in the uterus, or any change of structure, either in that 
or the vagina, was perceptible from touch. The pain was too 
exquisite to bear the use of a speculum. 

After being under treatment one month, the sensibility was 
very much diminished. She joined in a variety of calisthenic 
exercises, rolled at ten-pins, and took walks of a mile in length 
two or three times a day. The habitual pain was very much 
lessened. She had had one severe turn of pain lasting her 



78 EXPOSITION OF 

nearly two days. She continued improving during the next 
month, but toward the last of it she had another paroxysm of 
severe pain, not as excruciating as the one the month previous, 
and lasting about twelve hours. This came on the third 
day after menstruation. During the next month she had an 
attack of irritation of the lungs with considerable febrile excite- 
ment, soreness of the lungs and cough. It was occasioned by 
exposure to the night air. The febrile symptoms were relieved 
in a few days ; and the cough and every symptom of irritation 
disappeared in less than two weeks. With these exceptions 
her improvement, though not rapid, was uninterrupted during 
the four months of her stay, when she left cured. Her consti- 
tution had gradually gained power of endurance. For a long 
time previous to leaving, she walked daily from eight to twelve 
miles, beside taking a large amount of bowling, calisthenic, 
and other exercises. 



Miss , aged 24, of nervous, bilious temperament, had 

been out of health several years. She had an irritable uterus 
and vagina, or neuralgia of those organs. Physicians had 
treated her for inflammation. The symptoms present were 
exquisite sensibility of the neck and body of the uterus, which 
appeared slightly swollen and very tender to the touch. 

The vaginal membrane was also very tender and painful on 
pressure- — with very slight increase of temperature. Examina- 
tions per vaginam gave exquisite pain which sometimes lasted 
for hours after. She had much pain in the lower part of the 



MOTORPATHY. 79 

bowels, through the pelvis and loins, and frequent paroxysms 
of pain attended with a stinging sensation about the sphincters 
of the vagina and rectum. The most aggravated and continu- 
ous paroxysms of pain, w T ere just before, and a day or two af- 
ter her catamenial periods. These occurred with regularity as 
to time. She could take no exercise without great increase of 
pain, particularly in the right inguinal region. When, at 
rest in a horizontal position, the pulse was soft and not much 
quicker than natural ; but excitement or emotion would accele- 
rate them to 100 or 120 per minute. No change of structure 
in the vagina or uterus, was observable, if we except the slightly 
tumid appearance of the latter. The pain and uneasiness soon 
subsided under treatment. Occasionally after much exercise, 
she would have a relapse of inguinal pain ; but the painful 
susceptibility of the organs did not return. She left in two 
months, entirely relieved. She has since married, and continues 
in good health. 



CHAPTER VIII 



Sterility. — Abortion. — Cases. 



The causes of sterility are two-fold — organic and functional. 
Under the head of organic, may be classed all varieties of mal- 
formation, such as impenetrable vagina, closed fallopian tubes, 
wanting ovaries, and an undeveloped or distorted uterus. It is 
readily seen that these conditions, from their nature, will not 
admit of benefit from treatment, unless, in some instances, sur- 
gical treatment be of some avail. 

But in the functional causes, among which may be enume- 
rated those diseases of the uterine organs which do not produce 
change of structure, much can be done by the vivifying process 
of Motorpathic treatment. I believe with Waller, that " In 
the general, the cause of sterility is not attributable to organic 
defect, as the generative organs are usually well formed, but to 
derangement of their functions ; this derangement not unfre- 
quently depending upon constitutional causes. The state of 
the catamenial secretion should be carefully investigated, as this 
is the index which points out the healthy or unhealthy condition 
of the uterus. Should this function be deranged, the next 
inquiry is whether the womb itself is at fault, or whether there 
is a generally disturbed state of action in other organs of the 
body." " There is in most cases, debility of system conjoined 
with, if not producing, faulty uterine action ; and in a great 



MOTORPATHY. 81 

majority of cases, (the organs being perfect,) attention to the 
general health is the only probable method of removing this 
condition." 

There is nothing which operates so generally npon the whole 
physical organization, and brings not only one organ or set of 
organs into activity, but the whole into combined, harmonious 
and reciprocal action, like Motorpathic treatment. By its vivi- 
fying power, the causes of sterility are removed, and direct 
energy imparted to the reproductive organs, which enables 
them to develope their innate vital powers, not only in vivifying 
the germ received, but in carrying out the work of embryo 
organization, and perfecting the whole by the continuance of 
foetal life during the full period of gestation. 

Excessive sexual indulgence or abuse, is one of the most 
common causes of sterility in either sex, and can be obviated 
only by rest or more limited indulgence, by restriction to an 
unstimulating diet, and by the promotion of a reciprocal and 
vigorous motion between the two recuperative forces of the 
body, that the great waste of vital power may be replenished. 

If the vitality of the would-be parent is exhausted by excess, 
and by the debilitating effects of luxurious living, let not off- 
spring be hoped for, until the habits are changed and a thorough 
renovation is effected. It is a law of nature, that unhealthy or 
shriveled seed shall not be vivified and take root in any soil, 
however rich and fertile ; nor, on the other hand, shall good 
seed take root in a soil parched with heat or chilled w T ith cold, 
or filled, to the exclusion of the nobler products, with the weeds 
of disease. Let the weeds be cast forth, and the soil rendered 



82 EXPOSITION OF 

fertile by the unimpeded motion of the life-currents from brain 
and heart, and the seed may be expected to germinate, and the 
plant not only to spring forth, but to bloom under the parental 
eye, and shed the sweetest of fragrance upon the parental heart. 

Perhaps, of all desires, that of maternity is the strongest 
with woman. It is the one thing round which all her hopes 
hover. She looks upon maternity as her crowning charm, as 
the amulet which, when possessed, shall bind to her with more 
than fairy spells, her husband's heart ; and more than all, she 
looks upon a child as a constant source of ever new and ever 
deepening delight. Xo wonder that the heart, clinging so fondly 
around this object, and as years roll on with an ever-increasing 
desire, should sometimes sicken with hope deferred, and grow 
unhappy and desponding. Much charity should be felt for the 
woman vho looks upon her life as a barren waste, without ver- 
dure or bloom, and on whose rouoh declivities no vine clambers 
in beauty, hiding the imperfections beneath. 

Many ladies are so unfortunate as to give premature birth to 
their offspring. Time after time, the promise of maternity is 
given, and fond hopes brighten, which are never to be realized, 
and which leave the heart all the darker in the disappointment 
which they occasion. "When this habit of abortion is continued, 
the health declines rapidly, and if the unhappy sufferer does 
not sink from immediate exhaustion, consumption, or some other 
incurable disease, is almost sure to result from it. In most 
cases of this kind, debility of the uterus is the primary, if not 
the sole cause. There may be sufficient action for viviflcation. 
Such persons are not usually wanting in sensitiveness or inipres- 



M0T0RPATHY. 83 

sability ; their systems are rather like a finely-strung Eolian 
harp, vibrating to the least breath of air, but whose strings a 
rough breeze snaps asunder. 

Excesses of all kinds should be avoided by such persons, and 
a systematic course of exercises taken, which strengthen the 
uterus, and cause the vital forces to unite in supplying the 
increasing demands of nature, and then embryo life will not be 
cut short in the first few months, but they will be enabled to 
go through the periods of gestation and parturition, with per- 
fect health and safety, both to mother and child. 



Mrs. , aged 36, had been married 14 years, was never 

pregnant, menstruation irregular and painful, lasting from ten 
to fourteen days, succeeded by Jluor-albus, which continued 
more or less of the time, until the next appearance of the cata- 
menia. The symptoms present, were, great prostration of nerv- 
ous and muscular strength, loss of appetite, indigestion and 
costiveness. Her countenance was cadaverous, she had sleepless 
nights, her mental faculties were impaired, and she had a con- 
stant disposition to complain and find fault. Physician after 
physician had treated her, until all parties had become discour- 
aged. From this unenviable situation, relief was sought at 
the Motorpathic Institution, Rochester. Three months 7 treat- 
ment restored her to health and good spirits. She was quite 
another creature, amiable, kind and agreeable. Some eleven 



84 EXPOSITION OF 

months after her return home, a letter was received from her, 
desiring advice concerning her accouchement, which was draw- 
ing near. 



The following statement of a case is extracted from a letter 
received from a gentleman in Ohio, October, 1850 : 

" Having heard of the cures taking place in your Institution, 
I was induced to write and describe my wife's case to you. 
She has bronchitis, cold hands and feet, weak eyes, is very 
nervous, and pulse is one hundred per minute ; but her great- 
est difficulty is painful menstruation. She is first taken period- 
ically with great heat in the bowels, and distressing sensations 
which I cannot describe to you ; these continue to pass up until 
they reach the heart, where the agony becomes very great, and 
extends to the head, producing great pain and blindness. This 
distress continues until it produces a rigid tension of every 
muscle in the system. She will remain in this condition some 
time, then relaxation of the muscles commences, and gaping is 
the first symptom of recovery. Her great and alarming dis- 
tress at such times, has so frightened the family, that the neigh- 
bors have been called in, on an average, ten times a vear for 
the last nine years, to see her die. She has been treated by all 
the physicians of note for fifty miles around. They say that 
in her paroxysms of distress, the blood stops circulating in the 
heart, or nearly so, and that she has more or less congestion of 
the brain. She has been operated on three times, to produce 



MOTORPATHY. 85 

menstruation. There does not anything seem to help her as 
yet, and I would like to have your opinion of her case." 

The above lady arrived and commenced treatment two weeks 
previous to the time of her periodical attacks. Menstruation 
took place with little pain or suffering of any kind. Her men- 
struations after, were perfectly healthy and free from any phys- 
ical disturbance. She remained three months, and went home 
perfectly well. She had been married nine years without 
family. Some months after her return, she wrote to inform me 
of her prospect of becoming a mother, and desiring advice in 
regard to her diet, bathing, and exercise during pregnancy. 



Mrs. C , aged 30 years, had never been robust, hav- 
ing been subject to a cough, pain in the side and irregularities 
since puberty. After her marriage she had had two miscarri- 
ages, and had become so reduced that for eight years she had 
not walked, sat up, or turned herself in bed, without assistance. 
She had prolapsus uteri, dyspepsia, liver complaint, spinal 
irritation and what her physician had considered confirmed 
consumption. But on examination her lungs were found to be 
free from actual disease, though very weak. She was in a mise- 
rable, suffering condition — every organ torpid or diseased. 
She had tried various modes of treatment under some fifty 
physicians far and near, without material benefit. After five 
months' treatment she could walk, run, and exercise, equal to 
any one. Her health became good and firm, and within a year 



86 EXPOSITION OF 

after leaving the Institution, she gave birth to a fine healthy 
child. 



Mrs. , aged 2 7, had been out of health ten years. Her 

principal difficulty had been spinal irritation, affecting espe- 
cially the lumbar vertabrse and sacrum. Her naturally frail 
form had been so much impaired by the spinal affection, that 
her vitality was insufficient to supply the demands of gestation, 
and abortion had three times occurred. This had reduced her 
still more, and brought on prolapsus uteri. On account of the 
lateness of the season and her desire to return by the lakes, 
(her residence was in Wisconsin.) she remained but five weeks, 
but her improvement in that time was rapid, and she returned 
home better in every respect. The next year, several ladies 
coming to the Institution throuo'h her influence, brought the 
pleasing intelligence of the birth of a living child, and said she 
attributed her health and happiness to the benefit she received 
during her short stay. 



Mrs. , aged 27, entered the Institution, May, 1850. 

She had been in delicate health several years — was very ner- 
vous and excitable — had no endurance of constitution — men- 
struation irregular and painful — had tenderness and bloating 
of the bowels — palpitation of the heart — pain in the head, 
with retentions of blood — prolapsus uteri — difficulty of pass- 
ing urine and a general disposition to anasurca. She had been 



MOTORPATHY. 87 

married eight years, without offspring. She had never con- 
ceived and thought it impossible she should ever have children. 
She left the Institution in good health, and eleven months af- 
ter, intelligence was received of her being far advanced in preg- 
nancy. 



Mrs. S ■, aged 30, possessed naturally a delicate constitu- 
tion. Three years before she came to our Institution, she was 
reduced very low by a premature confinement, from which she 
had never recovered. She was suffering with prolapsus uteri, 
pain and weakness in the small of the back, palpitation of the 
heart, dyspepsia, and irregularity of the bowels. She had had 
fever and chills regularly for nine months, and had not been 
able to sit up any during that time. A complete change was 
effected in her health in six weeks, so that she was able to take 
a great deal of exercise, and endure much fatigue. 

The following extract is from a letter received since from her 
husband : " Taking advantage of your kind liberality, I trouble 

you with an epistle of inquiry. Mrs. S had a living 

child on the 8th instant, and had a very comfortable accouche- 
ment. She has been quite smart up to the present time, with 
a few exceptions about which I wish your advice." 

Nine-tenths of the cases of sterility, could be obviated by 

Motorpathic treatment, regimen, and exercises, if sufficient 

time was given to change the habits and general character of 

the constitution. 

6 



CHAPTER IX. 

Uterine Displacements. — Prolapsus Uteri. — Retroversion. — Antever- 
sion. — Cases. 

The uterus being suspended in the pelvic cavity, with its larg- 
est end upward, and having no other support to sustain it in 
this position, than its own self-sustaining, electric power, assisted 
in some measure by the peritoneum, a thin membrane, and by 
the broad and round ligaments which yield readily to any 
change of position, is easily made to fall to one side or the 
other, tip backwards, or slide directly down into the vagina. 
The os may be twisted to one side, and the fundus dipping 
down nearly to the cervix, or other positions may be assumed, 
the minute detail of which, would be of no advantage in a 
work like this. 

Prolapsus uteri, or a falling of the womb down in the 
vagina, or its protrusion thence, is the most common form of 
displacement. In females of stout muscular frames, the 
approach of prolapsus uteri is sometimes so slow and insi- 
dious, that the mind of the sufferer is completely veiled as to 
the cause of her declining health. Possessing naturally a 
strong constitution, which does not readily yield to fatigue, she 
seems, for a while, exempted from the penalties of excesses and 
physical transgressions, and exulting in the possession of so rich 
a blessing, she lives on, laboring and indulging her appetites 
and passions, equally regardless of advice or symptomatic warn- 



MOTORPATHY. 89 

ing, that tlie strength of her constitution is failing ; until, by- 
some violent exertion, some last act, she is prostrated and una- 
ble to rise. 

In more delicate females of nervous temperaments, who are 
highly susceptible to every impression, the true source of their 
suffering may be so obscured by excessive irritation of the nerv- 
ous system, and sympathetic functional derangements in vari- 
ous organs, as to deceive all but the discriminating physician, 
whose experience and tact guide him to the true cause. 

It is seldom that prolapsus is accompanied by complete sup- 
pression of the catamenia, but that secretion is often irregular, 
sometimes being excessive, and sometimes scanty and attended 
with much pain and suffering. In the first stages of this dis- 
ease, the symptoms are of so general a nature, as to elicit no 
alarm. The whole system suffers from debility and languor, 
but there is little pain. There is an inability to peform labor, 
or take exercise. The nervous system becomes very sensitive, 
and is easily provoked to unnatural action. As the disease 
progresses, walking and going up stairs especially, requires 
great effort; there does not seem to be sufficient motive power 
in the limbs, or strength to support the weight of the body, in 
rising from one step to another. Large assemblies and gay 
companies are now unpleasant, because the enfeebled frame 
does not possess the energy, nor the mind, the freshness, and 
buoyancy, necessary for the enjoyment of society. The quiet 
and repose of the chamber is desired, and the bed or sofa pos- 
sesses attractions, which there is no desire to resist. When 
standing there is a sense of weight or pressure in the pelvis. 



90 EXPOSITION OF 

Pain is felt in the small of the back or across the hips, through 
the region of the lower bowels, and sometimes it extends from 
the groins down the thighs. In the later stages of the disease, 
there is a sense of goneness at the pit of the stomach, a sensa- 
tion as of a sinking of the diaphragm, which makes the person 
feel as if she wanted a machine to assist her in breathing. 

If the disease is not arrested here, it steadily progresses, and 
the symptoms become more aggravated and continually widen- 
ing in their circle, as the powers of the body, one after another, 
are prostrated by the disease. The leucorrhea, which is al- 
ways an attendant of displacements, becomes more irritating 
and offensive. The uterus, in some cases, becomes enlarged 
or congested, and the vagina much irritated, producing a drag- 
ging and painful sensation in the loins and abdomen, which is 
much alleviated by a horizontal position ; because the uterus 
then partially returns to its proper situation, and the nerves of 
the pelvis are relieved from its weight, and the pressure caused 
by its descent. In some cases the uterus descends about half 
the distance of the vagina ; in others it falls so low as to rest 
directly upon the perineum, and in some rare cases it passes 
entirely without the pelvis, and hangs like a bag, externally. 

Additional and greatly aggravated symptoms, follow the 
progress of the disease, arising from pressure on the neck of 
the bladder and the rectum. The irritation from the vagina 
extends to the urethra, causing a constant desire to void urine, 
which is passed in small quantities and with extreme agony. 
Sometimes there is a complete suppression of the urine, making 
the use of the catheter necessary to empty the bladder. By 



MOTORPATHY. 91 

the continued pressure upon the rectum, its contractility and 
power of expulsion is diminished, producing constipation and 
intestinal derangement. 

Piles, in an aggravated form, are a frequent attendant of 
prolapsus uteri. A long train of sympathetic affections set in ; 
irritability of the stomach ; palpitation of the heart ; pain in 
the head, with a sense of fullness and dullness ; melancholy 
and fearful forebodings. Inflammation of the uterus may oc- 
cur " from its congestion and weight, with the unavoidable 
pressure and attrition of the organ, against the lower muscular 
part of the pelvis, which it was not designed by nature to 
touch." The nervous system becomes extremely sensitive, suf- 
fering acutely from the irritation of the nerves in the pelvis. 

Paralysis of the whole genital organs is sometimes an ac- 
companiment of this state of things, destroying sensation com- 
pletely in the parts' affected, so that little pain is suffered, though 
there is an inability to rise from the bed. 

Prolapsus uteri, in no two cases, will present the same 
symptoms, or be attended with the same sympathetic affections. 
One possessing a narrow, thin chest may have every appear- 
ance of phthisis — may have pain in the chest — hoarseness 
— cough — rapicj. breathing — hectic fever and a small, quiet 
pulse, when they all proceed from a sympathetic action of the 
lungs with the diseased uterus, and which disappear when the 
disease of this latter organ is cured. If a woman has pain in 
the back and loins, leucorrhea, a dragging sensation, as of a 
weight or pressure in the pelvis, with an inability to walk or 
stand, on account of increased pain, we may rest assured that 



92 EXPOSITION OF 

the origin of her suffering is not in her lungs, as a primary cause, 
but in her uterus ; and that it will be worse than useless to go 
through a course of medication, for the purpose of relieving the 
pulmonary affection, unless the uterus is first made to assume 
and maintain a natural position, and to resume a healthy mani- 
festation of its functions. 

Another may have dyspepsia, as a sympathetic affection with 
its distressing train of evils — indigestion — flatulence — constipa- 
tion — melancholy and recklessness of life; — take all the popu- 
lar remedies for it — employ physician after physician — visit 
watering places, medicated springs and hydropathic institutions, 
but they will avail her nothing in point of cure, until the pro- 
lapsus uteri is remedied. Yet another may, from the com- 
mencement of her decline, have her nervous system so much 
affected, as to make that appear the seat of her disease. As 
the uterine displacement becomes more aggravated, there is a 
corresponding increase in the derangement of the nervous 
system. 

It is impossible to describe the phases which nervous affec- 
tions assume, for their appearances are as varied as there are 
persons in whom they are manifested. Sometimes the pres- 
sure upon the nerves in the pelvis causes such a reflux action, 
as to produce spasms and convulsions. If these continue for 
any length of time, the limbs and other parts of the body may, 
become contracted. The abdominal muscles of most females 
who are confined to their beds, are more or less contracted, and 
by their want of elasticity, present an obstacle to the rising of 
the uterus to its natural position. 



MOTORPATHY. 93 

Hvsteria is one of the common forms of nervous disease, 
and of all the sympathetic affections, which arise from uterine 
displacements, is one of the most aggravating and distressing. 
It completely unfits its victim for every enjoyment of life, and 
for every participation in its duties. It might almost be said 
to free her from responsibilities, for her mind is often so affected 
as to make her wholly unconscious of what she is doing. 
Perhaps no one thing that has ever afflicted the sex, has been 
the means of heaping upon her such an amount of ridicule and 
contumely as hysteria ; or has so robbed her of the sympathy 
of her own, and the opposite sex. Seized in one of the dis- 
tressing paroxysms of her malady, she declares that she is 
dying, and because she does this, time after time, and year after 
year, and still lives on, apparently no nearer to her end than 
at her first attack, her disease becomes a by- word and a jest. 
Her peculiarities are unkindly dealt with, and sympathy for 
her sufferings is withdrawn. Even her physician will some- 
times stand by and witness her difficult respiration and screams 
of terror, with an ironic smile upon his countenance, and say, 
" there is nothing the matter. She feigns it all." In some 
instances, it may be the case that many of the fits are feigned. 
But admitting this to be the fact, the cause is none the more 
revealed, for there must be a something, laying back some- 
where, which has deranged her system, and weakened her 
mind ; for no person with a healthy body and mind can ever 
feign disease or death, for the sake of sympathy. 

Woman has been misunderstood — she has been called a 
mysterious being, because, in one hour, excitement would car 



94 EXPOSITION OF 

ry her to the very climax of manifested joy and delight, and 
in the next, when re-action had taken place, she was sunk in 
deep depression and melancholy. True, woman is mysterious 
in her spiritual nature — in common with all humanity. But 
disease renders her so, only, because its operations are not 
understood. Medicine has been given her in vain, and sym- 
pathy, either bestowed or withheld, has alike failed to miti- 
gate her sufferings. 

But, that she should be so censured and misjudged by those 
from whom she expects advice and assistance, is doing violence 
to her nature. Again, it is said " if she would only get up and 
exercise she would be w^ell. She cannot expect health while 
she lies in bed, or indulges herself in the luxurious indolence of 
a rocking chair." This may be true under certain circumstances, 
but it is also true, that she cannot take much exercise of any 
kind while suffering from displacement, without pain and serious 
injury to herself. Neither can she subdue her nervousness, 
calm her feverish excitement, refrain from the hysteric sob 
or indefinable dread of death, control the spasmodic move- 
ments, withhold the passionate exclamation, or keep her mind 
undisturbed by the petty annoyances around her, while she is 
suffering from prolapsus uteri, or some other material derange- 
ment of the uterine functions. 

The true cause of all this physical suffering, this derange- 
ment of the whole system, must be sought out, and the proper 
remedy applied. The question arises, what is that remedy that 
strikes at the root of these diseases, and removes the cause ? 
It does not lie in a course of depletion, for this only reduces 



MOTORPATHY. 95 

the system still more. It does not lie in antispasmodics, or 
a tonic course of medication, for they only allay the excitement 
for the time being, without imparting any additional vigor to 
the body. It does not lie in journeying or change of air or 
exercise, as these, if they can be entered into at all, cannot be 
entered into with any pleasure and spirit, and consequently 
their beneficial effects are lost. 

In what then does it consist ? Simply in this — in causing 
the organ to assume its natural, upright position, and by the 
process of statuminating vitalization, to develope its own life 
principle, and not only cause it to resume its self-poising, self- 
sustaining power, but remain in the electric position which 
nature designed. This life principle of the organ can be so devel- 
oped, (I had almost said inspired into it,) by Motorpathy, that 
the patient can be immediately raised upon her feet without 
injury or fear of displacement, though she had been unable to 
walk for years. 

This process must be repeated, until the organ is habituated 
to act of itself, and until, through the use of its powers, strength 
and elastic contractility of the uterine muscles is uniformly 
established, and the life power flows in, unaided from the 
brain, in sufficient quantities to establish an equable and vigor- 
ous motion between the two vital forces in the uterine system. 
When this is effected, the organs are brought into a healthy 
state. 

As in uterine diseases the unhealthy action of the vita-mo- 
tive power is more or less apparent in every part of the body, a 



96 EXPOSITION OF 

systematic course of exercises which shall give motion to every 
part of the body, and use to every muscle, is an important aid, 
by strengthening the whole muscular system of the body, and 
through that, lending support to the uterine muscles. 

Water treatment also is available when used Motorpathically, 
in quietening the circulation of the vita-motive power, and 
removing obstructions to its free circulation, as also obstructions 
to the secretions of the sanguinous system. It aids in the 
establishment of a more vigorous and sustained motion between 
the two recuperative forces, in every portion of the body, which 
by intimate connection with the uterine system as one of its 
centers, acts and reacts, each upon the other, and perfects the 
harmony of motion, not only between the vital forces in each 
organ, but between each individual organ and the rest, thus 
binding all together in a round of harmonious motion, which 
constitutes the health of each organ in particular, and of the 
whole when taken together — or constitutional strength and 
power of endurance. 

No pessaries, no external supports, no confinements to the 
bed with the hips elevated, with their long train of deleterious 
consequences, are necessary under this system. It acts upon 
the opposite principles, of giving to every portion of the body 
use ; through the contractions and flexions of the muscles, 
strength and elasticity ; and through the equable, quickening 
presence of the vita-motive power in every part, vitality. Thus 
all is activity, life. The life-power is made to assume and 
maintain its proper ascendancy over the inert physical. 



MOTORPATHY. 97 

In this way a command is obtained over these heretofore 
obstinate and unmanageable difficulties, and the success of 
their treatment reduced to a certainty. 

Prolapsus, though the most common, is not the only kind of 
displacement to which the uterus is liable. It may be so turned 
as to lie directly across the vagina. When in this situation, its 
position has received two names — retroversion, in which the 
fundus lies against the rectum, and the os-uteri is turned for- 
ward to the pubis ; and anteversion, in which the position of 
the parts is reversed, the fundus being turned toward the pubis, 
and the os-uteri toward the rectum. Sometimes the neck only 
will be twisted to one side, the body remaining in its natural 
position ; or the fundus may be fallen forward on to the cervix. 
In some cases the os is elongated, in others it is shortened, and 
in some it is relaxed and very much widened, the finger enter- 
ing so readily as at first scarcely to arrest the attention, and 
make the physician sensible that he is not following the vagina. 

All these forms of displacements are attended with similar 
symptoms and similar sympathetic affections; there being no 
reliable distinction in the diagnosis, the true situation can only 
be revealed by examinations per vaginam. The treatment in 
all is similar, for what restores action and vitality in one case 
will restore it in another. 

It is a mistaken idea that water treatment, unconnected with 
Motorpathy, can be made effectual in the cure of these diseases. 
The organ and parts must first be made to resume their con- 
tractile, elevating force before water or exercise can be used to 
any advantage, if they are not directly injurious. 



98 EXPOSITION OF 

Miss B , aged 23, had been able to walk or sit up but 

little for two years. Her disease was prolapsus uteri. She 
had naturally a good constitution, and her improvement was 
proportionate. In twenty-four hours she walked half a mile 
without detriment. She was under treatment six weeks, and 
for several weeks before she left, was in the daily habit of 
walking from six to eight miles before breakfast — which was 
served at six o'clock. 



Mrs. G , aged 26, was brought on a bed ; she had been 

sick four years, with prolapsus uteri, liver complaint, and dys- 
pepsia of a most aggravated character. Some time previous to 
commencing treatment, her stomach had become so irritable as 
to reject all food. For weeks her diet had been restricted to a 
soda cracker daily, and even that she could not retain. Every 
other day she was much distressed with nausea and vomiting. 
She had a curvature of the spine, attended with much irritation, 
pressure of blood to the head, nervous headache, and spasms. 
Her bowels were so constipated as to render the constant use 
of enemas necessary. She had also frequent distressing par- 
oxysms of gravel. She was so reduced as to be unable to raise 
up or turn herself in bed. Her improvement was immediate. 
In a few days she could walk alone, and after two months' treat- 
ment she returned home, with a degree of health which few 
who call themselves well, enjoy. 



MOTORPATHY. 99 

Mrs. H , of a naturally delicate constitution, with pre- 
disposition to consumption — several members of her family 
having died of that disease — had been confined to her bed ten 
months ; during five months she had been unable to bear her 
weight, sit up, or turn herself in bed. She was unable to lie in 
any other position than with her hips elevated some twenty 
inches, her arms supported on pillows, and her lower limbs — 
which were contracted eight inches— separated by inserting a pil- 
low between the knees. The weight of the bed-covering dis- 
tressed her, and was arranged in such a manner as to bear as 
lightly upon her person as possible. Her disease were prolap- 
sus uteri, with its attendant evils ; a long standing liver com- 
plaint and dyspepsia ; she had also a lateral curvature of the 
spine. Through the influence of a friend — who had been con- 
fined to her bed some years by similar difficulties, and had 
recently left the Institution cured — she was induced to seek 
relief where her friend had so happily obtained it. She was 
brought many miles by railroad, on a bed, accompanied by a 
nurse and other attendants. All supporters, (fee, were at once 
dispensed with, and her improvement under the Motorpathic 
treatment was immediate. On the fifth day, she walked twice 
through three long halls, and up and down two high flights of 
stairs, without assistance, and on returning to her room, said 
she felt better for the exertion. Three months' treatment 
restored her to better health than she had before enjoyed since 
childhood. 



100 EXPOSITION OF 

Miss , aged 24, entered the Motorpathic Institution, 

Rochester, New York, in Sept., 1851 ; had been out of health 
since her ninth year. She had had a cough the previous eigh- 
teen months. Her pulse was one hundred per minute, and 
very irregular. She was very nervous — she had had turns of a 
bloating of her head with dull, heavy pain in it. She had 
taken any quantity of medicine, and been under the care of 
several physicians, but grew worse continually. She had worn 
pessaries and supporters. On examination the os-uteri was 
found to be twisted to one side, and the abdominal muscles 
much contracted. Some portions of her spine were very ten- 
der ; and it was the irritation from this, which was reflected 
upon her bronchia and lungs, and produced the cough. A few 
weeks' treatment restored the uterine system to a healthy con- 
dition ; and as her spine became less irritable, her cough and 
other symptoms of pulmonary disease decreased. When she 
left, she was able to take more exercise and longer walks than 
she had ever before done ; her constitution having gained 
much in power of endurance. 

A letter was received from her a few months since, in which 
she said her cough had entirely left her, and that she was in 
excellent health. 



Mrs. S , aged 23, received an injury during confinement, 

which produced %)rolapsus uteri, with much pain and irritation. 
From the time of receiving the injury, to that of entering the 
Institution, (three and a half years,) she had been almost 



MOTORPATHY. 101 

entirely confined to her bed. She was unable to walk, and 
could sit up but a few minutes at a time. The irritation and 
pain continued, not only in the diseased organ, but extended 
to the back and limbs also. A portion of the spine was very 
tender, with great heat and pain, and sometimes a sensation of 
numbness extended throughout its whole length. She had 
frequent attacks of headache, vertigo, &c. Any over exertion 
produced loss of voice, and faintness. In three days after 
commencing treatment, she went up and down stairs, and in a 
week walked about the grounds, rolled ten pins, &c, &c. Six 
weeks' treatment restored her to health. 



Mrs. A , aged 27, had not walked in five years, or sat 

up more than two hours out of twenty-four. This was an 
aggravated case of prolapsus uteri and its concomitants. She 
was exceedingly nervous, and strongly inclined to dropsy, hav- 
ing a very fleshy, bloated appearance. In a few days she could 
walk about the house, and very soon a mile before breakfast, 
(quite an exertion for a woman of her size in good health,) 
besides entering with spirit into the calisthenic and gymnastic 
exercises, bowling, &c, &c. Two months' treatment effected a 
cure. 



Mrs. D , aged 25, had suffered at intervals from prolap- 
sus uteri for several years. For the last fifteen months she 



102 EXPOSITION OF 

had been confined to her bed, unable to get up or lie down, 
without assistance. She had distress and pain in her head, 
spine, stomach, side, and bowels. She had sickness at the 
stomach, and attacks of dizziness, and faintness. The pain in 
her back and bowels was continual, accompanied with heat 
and irritation. When she had been under treatment four 
weeks, she walked three miles at a time, and took much other 
exercise during the day. She was restored to perfect health. 



Mrs. E , aged 29, had been 5 years affected with pro- 
lapsus uteri, attended with general nervous prostration. She 
had also liver complaint and dyspepsia, and was in altogether 
a very distressed condition, being hardly able to move about 
her room, and in a very melancholy, depressed state of mind. 
In four weeks after commencing treatment, she was able to 
walk several miles, and, at the expiration of a few months, was 
perfectly restored. 



Mrs. T , aged 37, was brought from a distant State with 

much difficulty. She had been afflicted with dyspepsia, liver 
complaint, and prolapsus uteri six years, and was quite help- 
less. She was unable to retain any food, and suffered constant 
pain and distress in the region of the stomach, side and back. 
Her mental faculties were much impaired ; she was never free 
from a heavy, distressing pain in her head. On examination, 



MOTORPATHY. 103 

her case was thought nearly hopeless, but as it was the belief 
of her friends and physician that she could not survive the 
journey home, a trial was made. To the surprise of all, a very 
decided improvement was soon discern able, exceeding our most 
sanguine hopes. In a short time she was able to endure a great 
amount of exercise, walking and otherwise, daily; and could 
partake of any wholesome food in reasonable quantities with- 
out detriment. After eight weeks' treatment, she returned 
home, with a heart full of gratitude, that her last, despairing 
effort had been so entirely successful. 



Mrs. B , aged 25, had been unable to stand upon her 

feet for eight months previous to the time of entering the Insti- 
tution. The lower limbs were susceptible of feeling, but the 
circulation was very much impeded. They were cold and 
diminished in size. She had severe spinal irritation, much 
heat, and pain in the lumbar and sacral regions, together with 
prolapsus uteri and various female difficulties. She received 
immediate benefit from the treatment, and in a few months 
recovered her health, and the perfect use of her limbs. 



Mrs. II , aged 33, had suffered from diseased kidneys, 

liver complaint, and uterine disease four years. She had pro- 
lapsus uteri to such a degree, that when standing, the uterus 
1 



104 EXPOSITION OF 

protruded externally; by maintaining a recumbent posi- 
tion this difficulty was somewhat alleviated ; but two years 
since she received an injury during childbirth, which occa- 
sioned severe pain in the back and side. Pain in the head and 
oppression of the chest followed. She could not endure to be 
raised up in bed, nor even to be turned upon her side, without 
a pillow being placed between her knees. She could speak 
but a few words, without loss of voice. Her womb became 
ulcerated, and she had excessive leucorrhea. She had much 
pain in the bowels, and the tenderness of the stomach and 
oppression of the chest was such that she could not bear the 
weight of the bed clothing. When she had been under Motor- 
pathic treatment three weeks, she could walk all about the 
house and grounds, and roll at ten-pins. Two months after, 
she returned to her home, restored to perfect health. 



Mrs. , aged 22, had passed through her first acouche- 

ment, which had been a very difficult one, some three months 
previous to entering the Institution. She had had a milk leg 
and it was somewhat swollen and painful at that time. She 
was suffering from stricture of the urethra, or more properly 
speaking, from paralysis of the uterus and adjoining urinary 
organs, which had been so complete since the birth of her still- 
born child, that she had passed no urine without the use of a 
catheter. The neck of the bladder had become ulcerated pro- 
bably from some injury done by the constant use of the cathe- 



MOTORPATHY. 105 

ter, which made the passage of the instrument at that time a 
matter of great difficulty; and there was a prospect of its pas- 
sage soon becoming impossible ; when there would be danger 
of the bladder bursting from its distention with water, and 
thus destroying her life. The paralysis appeared to extend 
through the pelvis, and to embrace all the organs and parts 
contained within it. The loss of sensation extended to the 
small of the back and about the hips. The womb was fallen 
to a considerable extent, and to make the case still more alarm- 
ing she had a cough and chills and fever regularly ; with an 
hereditary predisposition to pulmonary disease. Treatment 
was commenced with little hope of success, but relief was 
immediate. After two days the use of the catheter was 
entirely dispensed with. She remained three months, and left, 
cured of her urinary and uterine difficulties, and her cough, 
fever, and chills had left her. She had a small neck, and was 
of fragile appearance, and although her constitution and strength 
had much improved, they had not developed into as much 
capability of endurance as could be desired. Since her return 
home, intelligence has been received of her entering into the 
enjoyments of life and calling herself well. 



Mrs. , aged 39. Twenty years since she had the measles 

which left her in ill health and subject to a cough. She had 
not, to use her own expression, " enjoyed, one day of health 



106 EXPOSITION OF 

since." She had had prolapsus uteri of a most aggravated 
character for fifteen years, attended with leucorrhea, flowing, 
and dyspepsia. Also such a severe urinary difficulty as not to 
he able to retain the contents of the bladder more than 15 or 
20 minutes at a time. She was very nervous and desponding 
and suffered much acute pain, for the relief of which she had had 
constant recourse to the use of morphine. Some of the time 
she was quite deranged and suffered much from pain in the 
head. Her improvement was immediate ; her uterine difficulty 
was removed ; the use of opiates was relinquished, and she grad- 
ually regained the constitutional strength necessary to perfect 
health. 



Miss B , aged 32, had had prolapsus uteri for four years, 

and for more than three years had been unable to bear her 
weight on her feet or to sit up. She suffered from palpitation 
of the heart, sickness of the stomach, and pain in the back. 
Her strength gradually failed till she became unable to turn 
herself in bed. Her stomach was so deranged as to allow no 
nourishment to be taken, except a single teaspoonful of thin 
gruel at a time. She had so much nervous irritation that she 
would see no one but her nurse. She was ako subject to con- 
vulsive fits which her physician had told her must prove fatal, if 
they continued. Her bowels were obstinately costive ; there 
was also a total suppression of the menses. Her lower 
limbs were contracted. In this condition she was brought 



MOTORPATHY. 107 

with much difficulty, extended on a board, to this Insti- 
tution, being unable to assume other than a recumbent posi- 
tion, or to bear inequalities in the surface beneath her. 

In twenty-four hours after commencing treatment, she walk- 
ed across her room. Her poor mother, on witnessing this, 
could only raise her hands and exclaim, " It will kill her ! It 
will kill her ! !" Five weeks after she was walking up and 
down stairs, about the garden and grounds and joining in a 
variety of calisthenic exercises. In three months she returned 
to her home in good health, and entered upon her sphere of 
laborious domestic duties."* 



* More cases might be drawn from the register kept at the Institu- 
tion, where several thousands are entered ; the largest number of 
which are uterine diseases of some kind ; but it is thought that suffi- 
cient variety is given in the different chapters, and that more would 
be uninteresting. 



CHAPTER X. 



Simple and Malignant Ulcerations of the Uterus. — Granulations of the 

Os-uteri. — Cases. 

Simple ulceration sometimes takes place upon the os or cer- 
vix uteri and in the vaginal membrane. The discharge from 
these is sometimes more or less fceted ; at others it is free from 
any disagreeable odor. The ulcers are rather superficial than 
deep ; do not degenerate into sloughing ; and heal without 
leaving rugged, indurated edges. I have most usually found 
them in women of a scrofulous diathesis, and not unfrequently 
in those in whom scrofula had made its unmistakable appear- 
ance in some other form. 

The symptoms of malignant ulceration are so well described 
by Waller that they will be given in his own words : " A 
sense of heat in the vagina may be mentioned as one of the 
earliest signs, varying in intensity ; in some hardly deserving 
the name of heat, the natural temperature being but slightly 
increased, whilst in others the sensation is described as being 
almost intolerable. A thin, acrimonious discharge is also 
noticed, its quantity sometimes veiy small, but the quality 
remarkably irritating, so that unless cleanliness be observed, the 
surface over which it flows becomes inflamed, and after- 
wards excoriated. Soon, however, this discharge becomes 
purulent, often mixed with blood, and highly offensive. As the 



MOTORPATHY. 109 

disease advances, there are occasional hemorrhages to a serious 
extent, produced in consequence of the coats of some of the 
larger vessels being destined by the ulcerative process. 

" The constitution soon gives way under these repeated drain- 
ings, the face becomes pale and sallow, muscular strength is 
diminished, the pulse feeble and rapid, and, in short, all the 
usual symptoms indicating prostration of the powers of life are 
observable. Pain is an uniform attendant on this form of ute- 
rine disease, but of a peculiar kind. In cancer, intense and 
agonizing pains are experienced, and these are described of a 
lancinating or stabbing character ; in the malignant ulcer, they 
are designated of a burning or scalding kind, so that you 
could, from that circumstance even prior to an examination, 
form a tolerably accurate opinion whether your patient were 
suffering under malignant or cancerous ulceration. 

" Malignant ulcer of the uterus commences in that portion of 
the vaginal membrane which is reflected over the mouth of the 
womb, soon extends over its whole surface, and, penetrating to 
the parts beneath, destroys entirely the os-uteri ; the cervix is 
next attacked, and in some rare cases the female has lived until 
nearly the whole of the organ has been removed by ulceration. 

" Sir Charles Clarke says, " When once the ulcerative pro- 
cess has commenced in this disease, the part attacked by it 
never as far as the author's experience has gone, recovers its 
healthy structure, but increased action of the blood-vessels of 
the os-uteri, which would eventually terminate in ulceration, 
may probably be diminished or controlled, so that the ulcera- 



110 EXPOSITION OF 

tion may not take place, and by such a mode of treatment 
much advantage is gained. 

" Another author states, that though the cure of this ulcer is 
exceedingly difficult, and notwithstanding it is ' nearly as severe 
as cancer itself ', yet it has been cured by ' mercury alone, or 
combined with hemlock, hyoscyamus, and other narcotics.' 
My own experience induces me to coincide in the opinion of Sir 
C. Clarke, and I therefore wish to impress upon your minds, I 
had almost said, the awful necessity of attending to the symp- 
toms antecedent to the formation of ulcer." 

These malignant forms of ulceration are, it is readily granted, 
difficult and tedious to treat under any method, yet it is be- 
lieved that some cases of genuine malignant ulceration, in an 
advanced stage, have been cured by Motorpathy. Others, in 
reading the cases, can make up their own minds as to the na- 
ture of the diseases. I am willing to acknowledge that some 
of them gave me sufficient anxiety at the time. 

Many cases of ulceration are cured with very little trouble, 
but now and then a case of simple ulceration, which does not 
seem to make great inroads upon the health, is still of an indo- 
lent nature, and for a long time resists the efficacy of treatment. 

It is well known how obstinate scrofulous ulcers some- 
times appear on the external portions of the body, and 
how, for a long time, they resist all efforts to discuss or heal 
them. Still, after a while they heal of themselves, and the 
disease remains dormant. Ulcerations of the womb occasionally 
put on something of the same inertness and immobility. Many 



MOTORPATHY. Ill 

cases of purluent leucorrhea, from insufficient examinations, are 
mistaken for ulcerations. 

Granulation of the os-uteri, is a diseased state of the mouth 
of the womb, where its lips are covered with small bunches, 
sometimes the size of poppy seed, and from that to the size of 
hemp seed. These granulations are sometimes soft, and bleed 
on pressure ; at others they are hard. It is generally considered 
a disease of some obstinacy, and is frequently treated with 
nitrate of silver. No difficulty has as yet been found, in mak- 
ing this disease yield to Motorpathy. 

]STo case of it has proved so obstinate under treatment, as 
occasionally a case of ulceration has. Yet, there have no cases 
of ulceration left the Institution, to my knowledge, unhealed, 
and which were not at the time apparently cured ; but some 
have been so obstinate under treatment, that it has been a 
question when they have healed, whether they were perma- 
nently cured, or whether the disease might not again break 
out at some future period. I can call to mind but one case of 
the kind which has actually occurred. 



Mrs. P , who left the Institution some twenty months 

since, had suffered from uterine disease, with an offensive leu- 
corrhea, for several years previous. Upon examination it was 
found that there was an ulcer on the external surface of the 
cervix-uteri, extending more than half the distance around 
it. The body of the uterus was no larger than natural, 



112 EXPOSITION OF 

and but little smaller, but was soft and flabby. The discharge 
was but slightly tinged with blood, and that not constantly, 
but it was very offensive and irritating to the vagina and ex- 
ternal parts. 

Her improvement under treatment was satisfactory. The 
ulcer healed in a few weeks, leaving a smooth indentation of 
surface, with a slightly roughened edge. The body of the 
uterus gradually grew firm, and nothing was observed in the 
functions of the uterine system, to indicate that it was in other 
than a normal, healthy state. What occasioned herself and 
friends the most alarm, and for which she entered the Institu- 
tion, was epilepsy. She had been afflicted with it some years 
— her mind suffered from it and it was fast increasing upon her. 
She remained seven months, and has not since had an attack 
of epilepsy. I heard from her a few weeks since, and she is 
again troubled with slight leucorrhea and excessive external 
irritation. What an examination would disclose, I cannot say. 



Miss , aged 23, of a scrofulous, lymphatic temperament, 

had walked but few times across her room in two years, and 
had set up but little during that time. She had great heat in 
the back — pain in the head — cold hands and feet — pain in the 
pelvis, with a dragging sensation, greatly aggravated when 
standing, and a very offensive, purulent leucorrhea. On exami- 
nation per vaginam, the whole os-uteri was found to be in an 
ulcerated state, and there was a large ulcer on one side of the 



MOTORPATHY. 113 

vagina. The body of the uterus appeared healthy except that 
it was very much fallen ; that and the vagina lying together 
just within the orifice. 

At the expiration of the first month of treatment, th e ulcers 
were unhealed and but very little diminished — discharge but 
little foetid — had succeeded in making the organs maintain their 
position while under exercise — general health improving — 
walked up and down stairs and about the grounds. 

Second month — ulcer on the vagina healed — os-uteri nearly 
healed — leucorrhea scarcely perceptible — strength improving — 
walks a mile daily — exercises in calisthenics half an hour at a 
time, three times a day — bowled, &c, <fec. 

Third month — os-uteri had become sound, but not perfectly so 
— until nearly the last of it. The lips of the os-uteri nearly 
obliterated — constitution improving, but is lax in muscle — 
wants energy. She remained another month, walked from 
three to five miles daily, and took much other exercise. 



Miss , aged 31, had not walked in eight years. Her 

parents being wealthy, had spared no care nor expense for her 
recovery. Many physicians had attended her. She had worn 
braces, supporters and pessaries. 

On examination, a pessary was removed with difficulty. It 
was badly encrusted, and the stench from it was almost intolera- 
ble. The vagina was badly excoriated, and the os-uteri in an 
ulcerated state. The body of the uterus was much enlarged. 



114 EXPOSITION OF 

The spine was very sensitive on pressure, in a number of places. 
She had pain in the head, giddiness, loss of memory and turns 
of great weakness and prostration. Her digestion was bad, 
her spleen enlarged, and her countenance sallow and cadaverous. 
Her catamenial periods were irregular and very painful. Her 
improvement under treatment was slow, and with some inter- 
ruption. Her mind was weakened as well as her body, and 
required constant stimulation. 

"When she had gained sufficient strength to walk, distrust of 
her own powers rendered it impossible for her to do so. She 
was two months learning how to go up and down three steps ; 
when that was accomplished, she could walk all about. 

Astringent lotions, followed by soothing ones were moderately 
injected for the purpose of cleanliness. This course was fol- 
lowed some weeks, until the excoriated parts healed, and the 
leucorrhea became less abundant and offensive. The uterus 
was reduced to its natural size in less than two months, but the 
os-uteri was not perfectly healed until near the end of the 
fourth month. There was no energy of mind or body ; all was 
dull, inert, motionless. When the uterus once healed, there 
was no more uterine derangement. The catamenial periods 
were without pain, and she had no leucorrhea. The os-uteri 
was obliterated, the cervix short, puckered, and pervious. She 
eventually acquired a good degree of bodily and mental vigor, 
walked miles at a time, and joined with spirit and animation 
in a variety of exercises. She returned to her home in good 
health, after spending nearly eleven months at the Institution. 



MOTORPATHY. 115 

Mrs. , aged 36, had been, five years previous to. entering 

the Institution, taken with distressing paroxysms of pain, com- 
mencing in the stomach, and extending through the bowels and 
back. These attacks occurred at first about once a month, and 
then less frequently. They appeared to have no connection 
with the menses. Occurred but two or three times during 
menstruation. At first, they lasted but two or three days. 
But at length the pain from one attack lingered on until she 
was taken with another, being only varied with times of greater 
severity. During these severe attacks, her bowels were very 
costive. Her family physician had given her, at such times, 
cathartic medicine enough for ten persons under ordinary cir- 
cumstances, without much effect. Later, these paroxysms of 
pain were confined to the lower part of the bowels, with great 
heat, and smarting, scalding irritation. Her urine was small in 
quantity, very high colored, and voided with extreme pain. 
She had recently had frequent attacks of diarrhea, which pros- 
trated her very much. These continued during the first weeks 
of her treatment, and occasioned much alarm. She was quite 
emaciated, her countenance sallow and cadaverous, but with 
much native energy of character and constitution. On exami- 
nation per vaginam, her uterus was found to be enlarged, and 
of a hard, knotty feeling, the os uteri was ulcerated, and the 
discharge was very offensive, and extremely irritating to the 
vagina and external parts. This discharge was more or less 
tinged with blood at all times, and several times during the 
course of her treatment, pieces of white membrane from two 
to four inches in length, passed her vagina. In this case, free 



116 EXPOSITION OF 

use was made of laudanum, in some ernolient preparation, as 
thin starch, slippery elm, &q., moderately injected both into the 
vagina and anus, to allay the pain, and keep the parts from, 
being excoriated bv the discharge from the uterus, until Motor- 
pathic treatment could be brought to effect a change in the 
system, and bring on a combined and vigorous action in the 
uterus. The discouraging aspect of the case, gave at times 
great anxiety, but the patient was hopeful and courageous, and 
at the expiration of ten weeks, she returned to her home, not 
entirely free from pain and heat in the uterus, but free from all 
discharge from the vagina, and the uterus reduced to its natural 
size, and without any perception of the hard knots in its sub- 
stance. The urine became healthy, and was voided without 
pain, and her health altogether so much improved, as to enable 
her to enter again upon her domestic labors for the household, 
without assistance. She had lost a sister by cancer. In a let- 
ter received from her a year after leaving the Institution, she 
says : "lam quite well at present, and have been during the 
extreme warm weather of the past season, with the exception 
of some heat in the lower part of the abdomen.'' 



Mrs. , aged 29, had been in ill-health eleven years. 

Her first difficulty was a pain in the spine, just below the hips, 
attended with leucorrhea. After two or three weeks a cough 
came on, with attacks of severe pain through the lungs, and in 
the spine between the shoulders. This cough and pain in the 



MOTORPATHY. 1 1 7 

upper part of the spine, alternated with the pain in the lower 
part of the spine ; when one was worse, the other being better. 
She sometimes made large quantities of urine, at others there was 
a complete retention of it, a catheter having to be used for 
months together. She had three abscesses within the year pre- 
vious, one on each side, and one on the left limb. She com- 
plained of chills and fever, had an accelerated pulse, but ap- 
parently more from nervous than febrile excitement. 

She had been very costive during the whole period of her 
ill-health, and for the last eight years she had had no passage 
from the bowels without a previous use of enemas. She had 
painful menstruation, for relief from which she had at several 
times submitted to an uterine operation. Her digestion w T as 
weak, her stomach refusing other than the most simple food. 
These accumulated difficulties had prostrated her upon the bed, 
to which she had been confined many years. 

Upon examination by stethescope her lungs were found to 
be sound. Her cough was sympathetic. Her spine was found 
to be tender in many places, and to be curved or twisted at the 
hips. This had occasioned pressure upon the sacral nerves, and 
obstructed the passage of the vita-motive power from the brain 
to the pelvis, and caused all the organs within that cavity to 
become torpid and the uterus to become diseased. The body 
of the uterus was found to be enlarged and hardened but of a 
smooth, even surface, and the os-uteri to be covered with hard 
granulations. The organ was fallen so low as to rest upon the 
perineum. 

During the first month of treatment, the uterus was very 



118 EXPOSITION OF 

nearly reduced to its natural size, and caused not only to as- 
sume, but to maintain its upright position under all circum- 
stances. The granulations were many of them dispersed, oth- 
ers were lessened — the irritation of the spine had nearly sub- 
sided — the cough slight. The general health improved, enab- 
ling her to walk about the house and with a little assistance 
up and down stairs and about the grounds. Menstruation 
came on with little pain — passage of stools regular without 
the use of enemas, since the first four days of treatment. 
Second month improved rapidly — granulations entirely disap- 
peared — leucorrhea also — uterine functions appeared perfectly 
healthy — food digested well — cough scarcely noticable — some 
pain in the spine — no trouble of passing urine since the first 
week of treatment — walked from half a mile to a mile at a 
time — several times a day joins in calisthenics, rolls at ten-pins, 
etc.. ifec Left in the middle of the third month cured. 



CHAPTER XI 



Uterine and Ovarian Tumors — Cases. 

The uterus is subject to many varieties of tumor, there being 
a number of the cancerous kind, beside polypus, a tumor usu- 
ally attached to the cervix-uteri, and filling the vagina as it 
increases — fibrous tumors, either attached to or imbedded in 
the uterus — calcareous tumors, which are a concretion of stone- 
like substance more or less compact — simple engorgement or 
enlargement, where the surface of the uterus is uniform and 
less hard than when the tumor is scirrhus or fibrous, and sev- 
eral other varieties. 

The ovaries are subject to about as many various forms of 
tumors as the uterus. It is often very difficult to determine, 
whether a tumor is attached to the upper part of the uterus, or 
whether it belongs to the ovaries. Sometimes a tumor in one 
of the ovaries co-exists with a tumor of the uterus. 

The tumors of the two organs are perhaps about equally 
unmanageable and difficult of cure, with the exception of sim- 
ple enlargement of the uterus, which frequently attends prolap- 
sus uteri, and is comparatively easily reduced. 

It is not claimed for Motorpathic treatment, that by it, all 

tumors, in whatever stage of progress, can be reduced ; but by 

its vitalizing process, complete absorption of the tumor has 

been caused to take place, in cases which were thought beyond 
8 



120 EXPOSITION OF 

cure ; and many have been relieved, the tumor very much les- 
sened and their lives made comfortable, in whom a cure was 
not effected. 



Mrs. , aged 47, applied to the Motorpathic Institution 

for relief from a disease of the uterus, which caused her great 
suffering. She had never had children. Her most distres- 
sing symptoms were pain in the uterus, leucorrhea, with 
painful hemorrhoids which occasionally bled profusely, and 
smarting pain and heat in passing urine, which could be 
retained but a few minutes when in a recumbent position, and 
on sitting up the desire for urinating was almost constant. Her 
pulse was but little accelerated and her digestion but little im- 
paired. She was very costive, and passages from the bowels 
were attended with much pain. On examining per vaginam, 
a tumor was found lying in the posterior part of the pelvis as 
large as a pint-bowl. It was with some difficulty that the cer- 
vix-uteri could be found. It was turned to the pubis with the 
os-uteri pointing obliquely upwards. The cervix-uteri was 
enlarged and rigid with a rough surface, appearing like hard 
granulations. The tumor was attached to and extended from 
the cervix, in all directions as far as could be felt, and appeared 
to be the whole body of the uterus. It was hard and the sur- 
face uniform, with the exception of a ridge about midway be- 
tween the cervix and fundus, which seemed like a fold in the 
external covering of the uterus, or like a large blood-vessel 
passing around it. When the uterus was partially turned, so 



MOTORPATHY. 121 

that the finger could enter the os-uieri, something, hard and 
sharp could be felt protruding within the cervix. The lower 
part of the rectum was one mass of knotty hemorrhoids. 

She remained under treatment three months, during which 
time she improved so much as to be almost entirely relieved 
from pain. The tumor of the uterus was very much lessened 
in size, and the external portion of it more soft and yielding, 
but within the cervix-uteri the same hard-pointed substance 
was observable. Did not succeed in making the uterus assume 
an upright position owing, probably, to the w r eight of the 
tumor. It was surprising to see her so free from pain, while 
the uterus remained in a fallen and partially retro verted state, 
with the weight and pressure of the tumor superadded. But 
the hemorrhoids had disappeared, circulation had been estab- 
lished in the hemorrhoidal veins, the surface of the rectum was 
soft and smooth ; she was perfectly free from piles of any de- 
scription — was not so successful in obviating all the effects of 
pressure upon the bladder; occasionally she had slight pain 
in urinating, with some heat, but most of the time she was free 
from pain in this particular. The bladder had to be emptied 
often. Usually she had to rise once in the night to pass urine. 
In the latter part of her stay, she walked with comfort many 
miles in a day, beside bowling, <fec, &c. 



Mrs. , aged 40, had been taken, some years previous, 



122 EXPOSITION OF 

with pain in the uterus, sometimes sharp and lancinating and 
at others more dull. Severe pain occasionally passed down the 
left limb, and extended to the hollow of the foot. She suf- 
fered extremely from strangury — the urine escaping almost 
constantly. The mind suffered deeply. Strength and vivacity 
of intellect had been succeeded by nervous excitability and de- 
pression of spirits. From the first of her disease, she had been 
able to stand upon her feet but little, and the last few years 
she had been confined to her room. On examination, the 
uterus was found lying cross-wise of the vagina in a retroverted 
position, and the os and cervix-uteri covered with small, hard 
tumors or granulations which were painful on pressure. About 
one-half of the fundus was indurated. 

She remained seven weeks under treatment and during that 
time the tumors and induration had entirely disappeared — the 
uterus was caused to maintain its natural position, relieving the 
urinary organs from its pressure, and thus obviating the stran- 
gury. Her general health and strength was restored, so that 
she walked from four to six miles daily, without fatigue, beside 
taking many gymnastic and calisthenic exercises. 



Mrs. , aged 42, had been out of health eleven years, 

and confined to her bed a large portion of the time. During 
this period she had had three attacks of bilious fever and three 
of inflammation of the lungs, in successive years. These, of 



MOTORPATHY. 123 

course, had impaired her constitution, and the inflammations 
of the lungs had rendered her subject to a cough on every 
slight exposure. 

The last seven years, she had been subject to diarrhea from 
which she was seldom free. Her digestion was very weak, and 
she suffered almost constantly from palpitation. She had a 
large tumor in the abdomen, which the many physicians, whom 
she had consulted, had agreed in calling an ovarian tumor. It 
lay so near the back, that pressure upon the spine would change 
its abdominal presentation. It could be felt per vaginam, rest- 
ing on the pelvis. 

She remained under treatment ten weeks when, owing to 
domestic circumstances, she was obliged to return to her family. 
The tumor had lessened more than one-half, and her general 
health had so much improved that she walked from one to 
two miles daily, and took a moderate amount of other exer- 
cises. 



Mrs. , aged 30, had been out of health ten years, and had 

been attended during the time by twelve different physicians. 
She said she was first taken with a very acute pain in the side, 
shooting across the abdomen, and at the end of three months 
she became unable to walk. This inability to walk continued 
nine years. 

The previous three months she walked around her room a 
little. She had been unable to rise from a horizontal position, 
except occasionally to change it for an easy chair, made reelin- 



124 EXPOSITION OF 

ing, with the feet raised. She complained of a constant and 
very severe pain in the lower part of the bowels, through the 
pelvis and loins and extending down the limbs. She had no 
cessation of pain, but it was greatly aggravated by standing 
upon the feet. She had occasional paroxysms of severe pain 
at the top of the head, which she described as passing up her 
back. She had suffered from indigestion a few years back, 
and complained of being cold and chilly. Her circulation was 
but little altered. Her spirits were variable, being sometimes 
high and sometimes very much depressed. She was subject to 
attacks of great aggravation of pain, attended with much nerv- 
ous excitement. 

On examination per vaginam, the uterus was found to be 
enlargpd to more than twice its natural size, and to be in a re- 
troverted position. The body of the uterus was very hard to 
the touch, the finger making but a very slight impression upon 
its surface. The os-uteri was thrust forward and upward, lying 
considerably higher than the body of the uterus. The cervix 
uteri was very little altered. It might have been slightly enlarg- 
ed but very nearly natural in size and in appearance to the 
touch. The posterior lip of the os-uteri was very much enlarg- 
ed, rolling over, with a hard, indurated edge. Treatment 
gave immediate relief. Within the first month, the paroxysms 
of pain had nearly disappeared, the uterus was about one- 
third reduced in volume, and she walked up and down stairs, 
about the garden and grounds, and joined in calisthenic exer- 
cises for half an hour, twice in the day. 

During the next month, the uterus was reduced to its natu- 



MOTORPATHY. 125 

ral size, both the body and the os-uteri ; and to its natural 
shape and texture. The posterior lip had become soft and 
natural to the touch, and the organ maintained its upright posi- 
tion under all circumstances. She took considerable exer- 
cise, walking, bowling, &c. Two-and-a-half months after enter- 
ing the Institution, she returned to her home and to her domes- 
tic duties, in comfortable health. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Chronic Diseases. — Dyspepsia. — Hepatitis. — -Diarrhea, — Scrofula, — 
Incipient Consumption. — Bronchitis. — Urinary and Kidney Disease. 
— Dropsy. — Insanity. — Xervous Irritability.— Neuralgia.— Paralysis. 
— Epilepsy. — Spinal Disease. — Cases. — Treatment. 

In the cure of chronic diseases, of almost every kind, Motor- 
pathic treatment is the desideratum needed, to bring the organs 
into healthy action. In dyspepsia — the derangement of the 
functions of digestion — increased motion of the body has been 
found so beneficial in promoting a more healthy action of the 
digestive functions, that exercise of some kind has long since 
been embodied among the therapeutical agents necessary to its 
perfect cure. 

The establishment oi health in every disease, depends upon 
inviting back to the diseased organs that motion which thev 
have lost. And when one of the fundamental functions for the 
supply of that motion is attacked, as in the case of digestion, 
the whole system suffers and sympathises in its derangement 
When there is a deficient supply of vitality, every organ must 
be weakened, hence the prostrating effect of any disease attack- 
ing the alimentary canal, which causes material derangement 
in its functions. Disease then attacks, as it were, one of the 
seats of life, this canal constituting that part of the animal 
economy from which the vitality receives its principal support. 

The vita-motive power must be brought back to the stomach 



MOTORPATHY. 127 

to aid in digestion, the first process for sustaining life ; and in 
order that digestion be easily accomplished, the food taken 
should be light, and adapted in quantity as well as quality, to 
the power of digestion present in the particular case under con- 
sideration. It may always be remembered, that the supply of 
vitality or nourishment is not according to the amount of food 
taken into the stomach, but according to the amount which is 
properly digested and assimilated, and enters into the sanguinous 
circulation as the great feeder of motion in the system. 

As the piling together of wood has no effect in creating 
warmth, unless fire be brought in contact, and it is made to 
kindle and burn, and by its decomposition, caloric, heat is sent 
forth in a circle around it, so food may be piled in the stomach 
to no benefit, unless the vita-motive power be called to act upon 
it. And, as when a fire is feeble, shavings and small bits of 
wood are used to coax it to a flame, which would be smothered 
by throwing on large pieces, or by the use of green or incom- 
bustible materials, so when the vitality is diminished, and but 
a small quantity of the vivifying power can be brought to the 
stomach, its action should be invited by a judicious choice of 
food, until the vital action becomes strong enough to digest 
larger quantities and heavier materials. Motorpathic treatment, 
by calling to its aid every therapeutic agent for quickening the 
vitality, and causing a vigorous motion between the recupera- 
tive forces of the system, removes the cause of indigestion, and 
not only reinstates the stomach in its vigorous functional powers, 
but creates a harmony of action in all the functional powers of 
the body, so that motion in one part is balanced and sustained 



128 EXPOSITION OF 

by motion in another, and the whole acts in combined harmony. 
It is owing to this renovating effect of Motorpathy — which 
makes it so potent in cases of worn-out and broken-down con- 
stitutions, and in their restoration from the abuses of dissipation 
and self-indulgence. 

In hepatitis, or liver complaint, its beneficial effects in re- 
storing the balance of motion, is soon apparent by a clearer 
complexion, a more animated countenance, and by the whole 
appearance giving evidence of their system being in a less 
loaded state from bile. 

In bilious diseases, it is frequently the case, that the whole 
body becomes saturated with the morbid secretions of the liver, 
and its subtle poison insinuated into every part, deadening its 
sensibility, and impeding the motion of the life-currents through 
it. Motorpathy, by giving an impetus to these currents, arouses 
the system from its torpor, and by degrees enables it to throw 
off the superabundance of bile. At the same time, a combined 
motion of these fluids is induced in the liver, the seat of disease, 
which, in consequence of this renewed action, gives out a supply 
of pure and healthy bile, proportioned to the wants of the 
system. 

Chronic diarrhea, a disease whose seat is in the mucous coat 
of the intestines, is frequently aggravated by the presence of 
acrid bile. In many portions of our country, particularly where 
intermittent fevers and bilious diseases prevail, this form of 
diarrhea is very common. In these cases it is one of the evac- 
uents which nature chooses, to rid herself from the presence of 
a poison, and should be checked only by producing a more 



MOTORPATHY. 129 

healthy secretion of bile, and by relieving the bowels from any 
extraneous cause of irritation, as unwholesome or indigestible 
food, and fermenting or stimulating drinks. The diet of a per- 
son suffering from diarrhea, should receive particular attention. 
When this disease has been of any considerable continuance, 
the digestion is invariably impaired, whether the diarrhea 
proceeds from the presence of acrid bile, or the presence of any 
other irritating substance in the bowels, which nature makes an 
effort to expel, or whether it proceeds from irritation, inflamma- 
tion or ulceration of some portion of the bowels themselves, or 
of a diseased action in their tissues. The food at all times 
should be light and easy of digestion, in some cases more spar- 
ing, and in others more nourishing. The idiosyncracies of the 
patient should be studied, particularly in this disease and dys- 
pepsia, and the diet and treatment regulated in reference to 
those peculiarities. 

Motorpathic treatment soothes and allays, the irritation of 
the bowels, and gradually gives them energy and tone. Its 
happy effects are very marked in cases of this character. Un- 
less diarrhea supervene to phthisis, or some other fatal malady, 
it can hardly fail to be brought under control by this treatment. 

Scrofula is a disease allowed by all to be deeply imbedded in 
the nature of its victim. It takes its firm hold early in the 
constitution, and influences the nutrition of the embryo infant 
and child, thus entering into the first principles of his physical 
nature. It constitutes one class of cases in which a balance of 
motion between the two vital forces, was not given in embryo, 



130 EXPOSITION OF 

and in which especial care should be given to the physical 
training, to develope the powers of the body. 

Wholesome and nutritious food, simply prepared, should 
compose the diet. All rich, heavy, and concentrated com- 
pounds should be avoided. Pure, fresh air, well ventilated 
sleeping apartments, and free, vigorous bodily exercise, are 
indispensable to the promotion of healthy physical develop- 
ment. When the lungs play freely in the open air, with brisk 
exercise to accelerate their motion, and also the motion of the 
vital fluids, the whole blood in the body is every few minutes 
successively exposed to the air, in its passage through the lungs 
and its vitality thereby greatly increased. 

Add to this the increased motion of the vita-motive power 
acting upon this highly vivified sanguinous fluid, and the 
increased energy thence given ; and then the aid given by 
these combined powers to the digestive and assimilating func- 
tions, in the preparing of healthy nutriment to supply the 
waste of the body and perfect its growth ; and then again the 
tonic effect of exercise on the muscles and its power of devel- 
oping their size and capability, and a faint idea will be given of 
the vast power which may be wielded by systematic physical 
training. 

Childhood and youth are the seasons when this treatment 
can be made most effectual, in correcting a strumous diathesis. 
And the prevention of the development of disease to which 
there is a constitutional tendency, is of far more importance 
than the cure of the disease when contracted — as the preven- 



MOTORPATHT. 131 

tion of crime is a thing more devoutly to be wished, than the 
correct discipline or reformation of a criminal. 

The advantages of Motorpathy in the treatment of scrofu- 
lous diseases, in their earlier and in many of their advanced 
forms, can hardly be too highly estimated. It goes to the 
foundation, and lays its inspiring hand upon the cause of the 
disease. Time and faithful perseverance are requisite to uproot 
a disease so inwoven in the nature and growth as this. But 
much can be done in a comparatively short time, towards de- 
veloping a better state of the system, and putting the constitu- 
tion in the way of renovation. 

Phthisis pulmonalis may be considered as the most alarm- 
ing form of disease, which is developed by a scrofulous or 
strumous diathesis, both on account of the great tendency to 
this particular form of the disease and its fatal termination 
when once firmly seated. Where the predisposition to tuber- 
cular deposit is strong, the disease often resists all treatment, 
even in its earliest stages. Hence the necessity when predis- 
position to consumption is known to exist, of developing the 
physical system and invigorating and strengthening the con- 
stitution by such aids as Motorpathic treatment gives. Then 
the vitality is kept in the ascendant, no tubercular deposit is 
made to combat with, and health flows on in an equable 
stream. 

In proportion as the lungs are incapacitated to receive, or be 
filled with air, the body becomes weakened by the loss of its 
vivifying influence ; and in proportion to the tendency to 
tubercular deposit and the causes which may operate to weaken 



132 EXPOSITION OF 

the vita-motive power, or withhold its action. Those who are 
on the eve of decline, or who have already begun to consume 
away, should not be placed under a weakening or debilitating 
course of treatment; for anything which reduces or exhausts 
the energies of life, causes the patient to be made a more easy 
prey to disease. All the latent principles of life require to be 
aroused into action, nourished, guarded, protected, and hus- 
banded in every possible way, that the patient may be better 
armed to protect himself against the encroachments of so mor- 
tal an enemy. Many who have died of consumption have 
been hastened to their end by the mistaken policy of a reduc- 
ing treatment. 

A class of exercises, tending to inflate the lungs, expand and 
develope the chest, and invigorate the powers of the body, 
together with such therapeutical agents, as shall increase the 
vitality of the system, and provide for its better nourishment, 
are the means to be relied upon in combating this disease. 

Hydropathic treatment after the lungs have become diseased, 
is of questionable propriety, and if ventured upon at all, it 
should be with extreme caution. Many who have been pro- 
nounced incurable by learned physicians, have been made heal- 
thy and sound by Motorpathic treatment. In some cases 
where the use of one lobe of the lungs had been entirely des- 
troyed by inflammation and ulceration, the patient was recovered 
so far as to be still in the enjoyment of a good measure of 
health. It is not pretended that every case of consumption 
can be cured, but in the earlier stages, and where a predisposi- 
tion in the disease exists, the system can be so fortified and 



M0T0RPATHY. 133 

renovated by this treatment, as to become healthy and strong, 
with a well developed chest, erect carriage, and greatly enhanc- 
ed constitutional powers of endurance. And though many 
cases in more advanced stages have been cured, yet they are 
treacherous diseases, and the conviction that little can be done 
in many cases hangs like a pall upon the most resolute effort. 

Bronchitis, a disease of the air-passages of the lungs, is 
sooner brought under the control of treatment. If uncon- 
nected with tuberculosis there is not so depraved a state of the 
system to contend with, and in most cases a cure is compara- 
tively easily effected. 

Urinary diseases in women, are, in the majority of cases, 
connected with diseases of the uterine system, and disappear 
when they are cured. If there be pressure upon the bladder 
by a gravid or enlarged uterus, or by a displacement of that 
organ, incontinence of urine is liable to be the result. In- 
continence and retention of urine in either sex, may result 
from partial or complete paralysis. One or other of these 
forms is frequently a concomitant of spinal disease, where the 
vita-motive power is partially cut off from the sacral nerves. 

Motorpathic treatment by relieving the pressure upon the 
spinal nerves, and facilitating the course of the viLi-motive 
power through the nerves, acts directly upon these forms of 
disease, and relieves them at once. If disease of the kidneys 
be connected with urinary difficulties, either as a cause or con- 
comitant, they assume a more serious type, and are not so soon 
brought under control. But where the change of structure in 



134 EXPOSITION OF 

the kidneys is inconsiderable, a moderate persistance in this 
vitalizing treatment results in its cure. 

Dropsy is a disease in which there is generally a diminished 
secretion of urine. This disease depends upon a morbid condi- 
tion of the exhalant and absorbent vessels, by which the bal- 
ance between them is lost, and their functions are characterized 
by debility. In some constitutions this cachexia exists a long 
time before general infiltration takes place, and its approach is 
slow and insidious. In others it comes on more suddenly. 
The disease is of more or less danger, according to the causes 
which conspire to engender it, and the part of the animal econ- 
omy, in which it may be located. The infiltration of a seri- 
ous fluid into the celular tissue, in which the body puts on the 
appearance of a general tumefaction, with softness and pale- 
ness of surface, and a loss of elasticity in the ligamentary cov- 
ering, known as general dropsy or anasarca ; and ascites, in 
which the collection of fluid is principally confined to the abdo- 
men, are the forms which will here be taken into consideration. 
When they have recently occurred, in persons previously of 
good or tolerable health and fair constitutions, their treatment 
is in most cases easy and certain. But when they occur in per- 
sons of broken-down constitutions, and are an evidence of some 
serious visceral mischief, or abberation in the functions of nutri- 
tion, their prognosis is more doubtful. Many cases of these 
diseases have been successfully treated by Motorpathy, aided by 
external applications which stimulate to absorption. Women, 
who have suffered long from displacement of the uterus, 



MOTORPATHY. 135 

tumors, ulceration or leucorrhea, are particularly subject to 
anasarca. The constant drain of these diseases upon the sys- 
tem, subtracts from its nutrition, and leaves the blood thin and 
watery. And the large drafts which they make upon the nerv- 
ous energy, leave the absorbent vessels unstimulated and inac- 
tive. The approach of dropsy is signalized, by swelling of the 
feet and ankles, which will gradually extend to other parts of 
the body. Judicious treatment in such cases is imperiously 
demanded, to avert the fatal termination. 

Motorpathic treatment can be brought to act decisively upon 
insanity, mat disease which vibrates between the mental and 
physical nature. It now acts upon the mental processes and 
warps the deductions thence drawn, or leaping its bounds, or 
setting aside its machinery, it acts from physical impulse, with 
scarcely the semblance of mentality, causing physical excite- 
ment, increased circulation and impaired nutrition, which again 
re-act upon the mind, and cause more settled aberrations. This 
action and re-action may continue for an indefinite period, and 
wear out both body and mind. This sometimes occurs in dis- 
eases of the uterus, liver, spine and stomach. The brain sym- 
pathises with the diseased organ, and insane manifestations of 
one or more of the organs of the mind, ensues, according to 
the part of the brain most affected. 

Insanity, as it stands developed before the practitioner, what- 
ever may have been its cause, whether physical or moral, is a 
disease both of body and mind, and he who would successfully 
treat it, must adapt his remedial agents to both. By humoring 

the caprices of the insane, as far as practicable, and teaching 
9 



136 EXPOSITION OF 

them self-respect, by bringing theii* good points forward and 
making them subjects of contemplation, at the same time, by 
kindness, gentleness and consideration, gaining their confidence, 
mental discipline can be gradually brought to bear on the sub- 
jects of aberration, and as the physical obstructions are removed, 
correct modes of thinking can be established, until as the body 
becomes sound, the mind becomes perfectly sane on every sub- 
ject. By such a course of treatment, many have been cured, 
and some who had spent months in insane asylums without 
benefit. Out of regard for the comfort of other patients, those 
persons laboring under madness are not received into the Insti- 
tution, and of course little can be said of the effect of Motor- 
pathy on that form of insanity. But that form of insanity in 
which the sufferer is not likely to do violence to himself or 
others, and cases of partial aberration of intellect, experience has 
testified, can be permanently cured by Motorpathic treatment. 

Many persons who apparently possess good muscular systems, 
suffer from debility and weakness or irritability of the nerves, 
and are unable to take much exercise without fatigue. Others 
of a frail personal appearance, or who possess fine or delicate 
organizations, it is not a matter of so much surprise to see suf- 
fering from nervous excitability. In both cases these manifes- 
tations are owing to a loss of harmony in the motion, or the 
attractions and repulsions between the two acting forces of the 
body, the nervous and sanguinous, in which the nervous power 
which should support the activity of the muscles, is expended 
in nervous excitation. Some nervous systems become so ex- 
tremely sensitive, that noise of any kind is disagreeable. The 



MOTORPATHY. 13*7 

sound of voices in conversation, and the moving of paper is 
extremely annoying, and even the music of nocturnal insects, 
and the rustling of the leaves on the trees, is so irritating to 
their acute sensibilities, as to deprive them of rest. Nervous 
diseases assume so many phases and peculiarities, resulting from 
the set of nerves affected, and the temperament and idiosyncra- 
sies of the persons in whom they are manifested, that it would 
be unjust to charge an individual who is suffering in such par- 
ticulars, with feigning it all. In many cases the unhappy suf- 
ferer can no more banish this irritation, than he can refrain 
from realizing the pain from violent headache. The nerve con- 
veying impressions to either of the senses, may become so 
affected as not to bear without pain its natural stimulus. The 
optic nerve, for instance, is often so sensitive that it cannot 
endure the light. The sense of touch becomes so acute in some 
persons, that they cannot wear flannel or cotton goods, unless 
of fine material, next the skin. They feel as though the nerv- 
ous filaments distributed to the surface, were elongated and 
continually waving back and forth over the skin, producing a 
most disagreeable and annoying sensation. 

These aberrations of the nervous power, are frequently met 
in chronic disease of some of the viscera, and when dependant 
upon such causes, it is useless to attempt the establishment of a 
healthy nervous circulation, except as the organic disease is 
remedied. 

Persons habituated to much study, and to severe mental labor, 
consume much of the nervous stimuli in the brain, leaving other 
parts of the system to suffer and grow languid. This absorp- 



138 EXPOSITION OF 

tion and loss is first felt in the nervous system ; hence the nerv- 
ous excitability of artists, of persons engaged in literary 
pursuits, and of those subjected to a long course of mental 
excitement, particularly if it has been of such a nature, as to 
deprive them of out-door exercise. Persons engaged in per- 
forming a single round of duties, without change of scene or 
action, having nothing to divert the attention from themselves, 
often become diseased through the influence of the imagination. 
A pain, from some slight disturbance in the system, is felt in 
some particular place. An endeavor is made to trace out the 
cause, and by continually thinking about the pain, and won- 
dering what will be its results, and what will be the best remedy 
for its cure, so much of the mind's force is thrown upon it, as to 
cause a derangement in the motion of the fluids which support 
the part, and in the end, the very disease is established, which 
at first existed only in imagination. 

Many who are suffering from local disease and nervous sym- 
pathy, increase their sufferings by dwelling upon their bad 
feelings. Accustomed to the same room and the same sur- 
roundings, month after month, and year after year, there is 
nothing to divert the mind from itself or the body. Every 
new pain or symptom is noted, compared with previous ones, 
and its prospective danger anticipated. It is a difficult matter, 
under such circumstances, for the person to recover while sur- 
rounded by the same associations. The mind requires medical 
aid as well as the body, and the fact is proved by universal 
experience, that mental derangements, weaknesses and obliqui- 
ties, cannot be so successfully treated, while surrounded by tho 



MOTORPATHY. 139 

associations in which they were contracted. Hence the benefit 
accruing to those who are suffering from chronic complaints 
combined with nervous derangements and mental hallucinations, 
from leaving home and all its associations, and entering an 
institution where the mind will be diverted with amusements, 
and new objects and scenes to gratify its curiosity, and where, 
instead of thinking about pains and aches, and the probability 
of dragging out a life of suffering and helplessness, a speedy 
and certain recovery to comfortable, if not firm health, can be 
contemplated, and the pleasure dwelt upon of again entering 
upon the duties and enjoyments of life. 

Neuralgia in the head, or nervous headache, is a disease of 
very common occurrence, and one which often bids defiance to 
the remedies prescribed. The pain is generally most severe in 
a particular part of the head, being frequently located over 
one eye, or in one temple. The pain is sometimes general 
through the whole head — then the patient complains of great 
tightness or fullness of the head in stooping, dullness, and often 
of feeling as if the head were enlarged in size. Sometimes 
there is an indistinctness of vision, and an appearance of level 
objects rising up, and of atoms dancing before the eyes. In 
some, it is attended with a cold feeling, as if a current of air 
were blowing upon the head ; in others there is a great degree 
of heat, particularly at the top of the head. If these symptoms 
be allowed to continue long, insanity or paralysis is to be 
apprehended. 

Neuralgia facialis — tic doloreux, or pain in the face and 
teeth, is a very similar affection to that of nervous headache, 



140 EXPOSITION OF 

the only difference being in the set of nerves attacked. Its 
originating cause, like that of the former, is a deficiency of the 
volatile fluid which supports the nerves, and through them 
keeps up the strength and tone of the system, and prevents it 
from sinking into disease. But when the system is laboring 
under a diminution of the volatile principle, it is peculiarly pre- 
disposed to disease, and any trifling circumstance, such as 
trouble of mind, perplexity in business, a slight cold, or the 
extremity of a nerve being exposed to the air, is sufficient to 
produce pain of the nervous kind, either in the head, face, or 
teeth. 

On the dissection of those who die of these diseases, the 
nerves are often found much wasted, and sometimes contain pus, 
which proves beyond doubt that the nervous fluid is the seat of 
the disease. 

As the nerves traverse and intersect every portion of the 
body, any part is liable to neuralgic pain. When the nerves of 
the heart and blood-vessels are less plentifully supplied with the 
nervous fluids, they are peculiarly liable to be fastened upon by 
disease, and the unhappy patient may be subject to paroxysms 
of violent palpitation of the heart, succeeded sometimes by 
severe spasms, and great prostration of strength, a violent beat- 
ing of the large arteries, and uneven circulation. The lungs 
often sympathise in the paroxysms, producing great difficulty in 
breathing. All this is at last succeeded by a diminution of 
the volatile fluid throughout the whole system, or general 
debility. 

Some cases of neuralgia have not readily yielded to Motor- 



M0T0RPATHY. 141 

pathic treatment, requiring a long time for their perfect restora- 
tion. But in the majority, relief is immediately given by it, 
and a few weeks' perseverance effects a cure. 

Motorpathy has been thoroughly tested in the treatment of 
paralysis, and its happy results in the restoration of feeling and 
motion to parts paralyzed, has exceeded the most sanguine 
expectations. 

A few cases of epilepsy have been treated by it, and in those 
it was perfectly successful. But the number of this particular 
kind of convulsion, has been too limited to say much from 
experience of its efficacy in this variety. But in hysteria, con- 
vulsions from nervous irritation, and that peculiar kind of con- 
vulsions attendant upon spinal disease, it has been very success- 
ful, large numbers having been treated by it to entire satisfaction. 

The spinal cord being the great avenue through which the 
vita-motive power is carried for distribution to the various por- 
tions of the body, any obstruction to its free passage is of great 
moment. The consequences resulting from a trifling injury to 
this bundle of nervous fibres are fearful to witness. 

For protection from accident, this medula spinalis is enclosed 
in the bony cavity of the spinal column. Thirty-one pairs of 
nerves are given out in its course, and nine pairs of nerves issue 
from the medula oblongata, or lower part of the brain which 
intersect, in almost innumerable points, the spinal nerves ; the 
most remarkable of which is the intercostal or great sympa- 
thetic nerve, which is formed from the fifth and sixth pair of 
nerves, and descends from the brain close to the spine, and 
receives branches from almost all the vertebral nerves, and 



142 EXPOSITION OF 

forms many ganglions in its course through the thorax and 
abdomen, which send off an infinite number of branches to 
the viscera in those cavities. 

The other nerves from the medula oblongata, send off again 
almost innumerable branches, which spread and intersect them- 
selves through every part of the body, penetrating the bones, 
and spreading themselves like delicate tissue-work through 
most of the internal organs. 

The spinal nerves are particularly liable to obstructions from 
pressure, from inflammations of their ligaments, from contrac- 
tions of muscles, and from various other causes. And when 
looked upon in their true light as the conveyors of the propel- 
ling life-power, we cease to wonder that the body is so pros- 
trated at apparently trifling diseases attacking the spine. 

"When an organ is diseased, it frequently happens that the 
principal nerves which communicate with it, are tender, giving 
pain on pressure. This is more particularly observable where 
the nerve enters the spine. It may proceed, in the first place, 
from an inflammation or morbid excitement of the organ, 
which is communicated to the nerve; or it may proceed 
from an irritation of the membranes of the spine and nerve, 
which intercepts the free passage of the vita-motive power 
from the spine to the organ ; when, as a natural consequence, 
the organ becomes enfeebled, and disease follows. 

In all cases of genuine dyspepsia and chronic inflammation 
of the stomach, this tenderness of the nerve, where it enters the 
spine opposite the stomach, is observable. 

The tenderness and pain about the back, which always exist 



MOTORPATHY. 143 

with female diseases, is traceable to the same cause ; the dis- 
ease in the organ sometimes occasioning an irritation of the 
spine, and at others an irritation of the spine being the cause 
of the organ becoming diseased, which shows the intimate 
connection between that class of diseases and the nervous sys- 
tem. Such cases may not improperly be called a connection of 
spinal and organic disease. 

It is presumed there is no class of diseases which baffles the 
skill of the medical faculty like those of a spinal origin. 
When a patient complains of heat, irritation, weakness, pains, 
or numbness about the back, or when there is any tenderness 
felt on pressing the vertebra or joints of the spine, the usual 
remedies which are resorted to — we had almost said the only 
ones — are plasters, tartar emetic sores, mercurial ointments, lini- 
ments, lotions, blisters, issues, and seatons. If these means fail 
to raise a counter irritation, sufficient to remedy their own 
weakening effects, which unhappily is seldom the case, they 
prove an incalculable detriment to the patient, by laying a 
foundation for the worst nervous diseases, dyspepsia, liver com- 
plaint, consumption or spinal curvatures. 

Spinal irritation often produces weakness of the lungs, 
coughs, shortness of breath, pain in the side or stomach, flatu- 
lency, indigestion, dyspepsia, costiveness, female weakness, 
prostration of strength, irritability of the nervous system, va- 
pors or low spirits, mania, &c. Sometimes one class of these 
symptoms, and at others almost the whole combined, are but 
simply the effects of spinal irritation. And often — far oftener 
than is ever dreamed of by sufferer or physician, are persons 



144 EXPOSITION OF 

harrassed by these secondary diseases, from month to month, 
and year to year, constantly taking medicine which, if it does 
not injure them, at best does little or no good, because directed 
to an effect, not to the removal of the cause which produces all 
these difficulties. 

A patient with a spinal disease or weakness should be plac- 
ed under a course of treatment principally directed to the spine 
itself with such minor alterations as are suited to the peculiar 
idiosyncrasy of the individual. This never fails to remove the 
irritation, relieve the heat and pain, and produce elasticity and 
health in the spinal nerves and muscles, and the patient speed- 
ily recovers from all the threatened evils and diseases which 
the symptoms had indicated. 

As well might we shoot at a shadow, in the hope of killing 
the animal which gave it, as to direct our remedial agents to 
these effects or shadows, as it were, cast over the system from 
the original disease or cause. However dark, these shadows 
may be, we must aim something at the cause itself, which 
shall destroy, or can disperse them. 

The success of Motorpathic treatment in curing diseases of 
the spine, including spinal curvatures in their earlier and 
medium stages, whether lateral, posterior, or anterior, is un- 
questioned. It is not pretended that those enormous curvatures 
and deformities, which are sometimes seen, can be restored to 
their original form, but in such cases the pain is relieved, a 
healthy action of the organ is promoted, and the muscles and 
tendons are strengthened so that the health becomes good ; and 
at the same time the form is greatly improved. In many chil- 



MOTORPATHY. 145 

dren, deformities are called " rickets," when they are purely 
spinal and easily cured. 

This treatment has been very successful in restoring the use 
of limbs and the elasticity of contracted muscles. Some 
remarkable cases have been treated by it, and many have been 
made to walk, whom, it was supposed, would be helpless for 
life. 



Mr, H •, aged 46, had been unable to labor for ten years. 

He was much emaciated, and very desponding and misan- 
thropic. His whole nervous system was completely shattered. 
He had great debility and lassitude, and was able to eat noth- 
ing but plain boiled rice, and even that in small quantities. 
He had been subject to bronchial inflammation, for several 
years. 

A short course of treatment restored tone to the digestive 
organs, and as he improved in this respect, he attained a more 
cheerful, hopeful frame of mind. The other difficulties were 
gradually overcome, and he left>with health to enter into the 
business and enjoyments of life. 



Miss M. P , aged 22 years, had for five years been 

afflicted with dyspepsia. She had had, during that time, fre- 
quent attacks of bilious colic. She suffered from tic-doulou- 
reux, and from all the evils which follow in the train of these 



146 EXPOSITION OF 

diseases. She could eat nothing without occasioning great dis- 
tress — had chills, cold hands and feet, and great pressure of 
blood to the head. The neuralgic paroxysms were frequently 
so severe as almost to deprive her of reason. After the first six 
weeks, the neuralgic paroxysms had entirely ceased, and the 
bilious colic was so far controlled by Motorpathic treatment, 
that the attacks lasted only two or three hours, and she recov- 
ered from their effects in a day or two ; whereas previously, they 
lasted from twenty-four to forty hours, and their effects upon 
her system continued for a week or more. The next six weeks, 
the bilious colic had disappeared, and lastly uniform healthy 
digestion was established ; and after four months' treatment, 
she returned to her home, perfectly restored. 



Mr, D , aged 60, had suffered from liver complaint and 

dyspepsia, many years, and became at last so reduced that his 
life was despaired of. He had for a long time been unable to 
take any nourishment, without causing excruciating pain. His 
bowels were extremely torpid and inactive. The operation of 
cathartics was procured with great difficulty. The abdominal 
muscles were contracted so as to constrict and draw too the 
stomach and bowels, and presented to the hand, the tense, hard 
feeling of an interlining of dried untanned leather. He was 
literally wasted to a skeleton. He was irritable and fickle, his 
mental faculties were much impaired, he could with difficulty 
be made to understand the reasons of anything. A friend of 



MOTORPATHY. 147 

his, who had returned from this Institution cured, induced him 
and his wife, to attempt the journey from his own home in 
Ohio, to this place. He arrived nearer dead than alive, being 
in a state almost devoid of consciousness. After a few days, a 
decided improvement under treatment was manifested. In 
seven weeks he commenced sawing wood for his own fire, and 
in two months he gained in weight 35 pounds. Four months' 
treatment, restored him to physical vigor. He became a hale, 
hearty, intelligent old gentleman. 



Miss G , aged 1 8, was a very slender, delicate girl — had 

never been robust. For two years she had suffered much from 
liver complaint, with its usual symptoms. She had pain in the 
side and shoulder, a poor appetite, sickness at the stomach, and 
bilious vomitings. Her complexion was sallow, with yellowish 
suffusion of the conjunctiva. Menstruation had never been 
established. She had a slight curvature of the spine, attended 
with much irritation. It was feared she was rapidly going into 
a decline. 

Her improvement under treatment was such, that in three 
months she returned home in perfect health. 



Mr. B , aged 29, had been in such ill health as to 



148 EXPOSITION OF 

oblige him to relinquish business for two years. His diseases 
were liver complaint, dyspepsia, and nervous debility. He suf- 
fered much from pain in the right side and under the shoulder 
blade. He was much emaciated — had little or no appetite, 
with the usual train of distressing symptoms attending aggravat- 
ed cases of his disease. His mental faculties were also consid- 
erably impaired ; there was a partial loss of memory and an 
inability to converse coherently, more than a few minutes at a 
time. 

Habits of self-abuse had conspired to render his case almost 
hopeless. His sleep was much interrupted by his habits. His 
improvement under treatment exceeded expectation. In three 
months all symptoms of dyspepsia and liver complaint had dis- 
appeared. His appetite was good and his sleep seldom dis- 
turbed. Some nervous excitability remained, and his memory, 
though improving, was still treacherous. He remained under 
treatment six months, and left cured. His memory was per- 
haps a little less retentive than in early youth, but with fair 
mental activity and good bodily health. 



Mrs. , aged 21, had suffered from frequent attacks of 

diarrhea two years — had become very much emaciated and de- 
bilitated — could sit up but little. When she commenced 
treatment she had from ten to twenty motions of the bowels 
in twenty-four hours — stools loaded with bile of a dark color, 



MOTORPATHY. 149 

sometimes almost black and very foeted. She suffered much 
from pain, and had no appetite — profuse leucorrhea was present, 
probably caused by debility. 

Her improvement under treatment was not rapid. It was 
two months before the liver and bowels were brought into uni- 
form healthy action. 

She eventually, not only regained her health, but increased 
powers of endurance, being able to take more exercise without 
fatigue than she had before done since childhood. 



Miss W , aged 18, had a scrofulous humor, which came 

out in patches over her whole body. Her head, ears, sides of 
her face, neck and shoulders, was one entire sore, of a honey- 
comb like appearance, each pore exuding a very offensive mat- 
ter. Her hair had fallen from her head, there remaining only 
a small tuft at the top. She had been taking medicine from 
various physicians, during the two years previous. 

At the end of two months treatment, the sores were all heal- 
ed, and in four months she had a good growth of fine hair 
covering her head. She is now a teacher in a High School, 
and in good health. 



Mr. R H , aged 22, had, when he entered the In- 
stitution, a bad curvature of the spine, and six discharging spi- 
nal abscesses. He was much emaciated, and so debilitated as 



150 EXPOSITION OF 

to be unable to walk. In three months, the scrofulous sores 
were all healed except one, which was left open, not thinking 
it advisable to heal thern all at once, and his health became 
good, and his flesh firm. 



Mr. L. M , aged 28 years. Difficulties, scrofula, spinal 

curvature, contraction of muscles, abscesses, weakness and irri- 
tability of the nerves, loss of memory, and loss of the use of 
limbs. This individual had inherited scrofula of the worst de- 
scription. He had sixteen discharging abscesses — the curva- 
ture of his spine was of fourteen years' standing. The abscesses 
were all healed except one, which was reduced to the size of a 
ten cent piece, and a pea inserted to keep up a discharge. The 
indications of scrofula gradually disappeared, and the curvature 
was so far removed as to increase his height four inches. His 
general health became such as to enable him to walk, run, and 
endure a reasonable amount of exercise of any kind. 



Mrs. E.N , aged 31 years, had lung disease, with a sharp, 

dry cough. Her friends considered her incurable from con- 
sumption, and thought, that, even should she recover from that, 
she would be a victim to insanity. She inherited scrofula, her 
temperament, skin, hair, and general appearance, denoting this 
disease. She also suffered much from prolajysus uteri. 



MOTORPATHY. 151 

A remarkable feature in this case, was, that on examining 
and sounding the lungs by stethescope, <fcc, the left lobe was 
found in a dry and inactive condition. She could not inflate it 
in the least She had much pain and uneasiness in the chest, 
was very nervous, and at times deranged. There was in this 
case a remarkable combination of difficulties seldom grouped 
together — nevertheless, she eventually recovered the entire and 
healthy use of her lungs ; the cough and the whole train of 
weaknesses in a few months disappeared, and she returned to 
her husband and family, cured, and radiant with health and 
happiness. 



Mr. S , aged 32, was much emaciated — had a distressing 

cough, hectic fever, diarrhea, night sweats — in short, every 

symptom of confirmed consumption. The disease of the lungs, 

in this case, had probably been induced or at least greatly 

aggravated by spinal irritation, and the unnatural position into 

which the lungs were drawn by a bad curvature of the spine. 

His physicians had given him up ; his friends despaired of his 

recovery ; and when he reached this Institution, he was told 

that his case was very doubtful, and it was feared, hopeless ; but 

he had taxed to the utmost his little remaining strength in the 

journey hither, and he entreated that an effort should be made 

in his behalf, which was acceded to. An abatement in the 

symptoms was soon observable, and to the surprise of all, his 

form became measurably erect, his chest expanded, and his 

breathing was free and full. He gained in flesh as well as 
10 



152 EXPOSITION OF 



strength, and at the end of five months, left the Institution, free 
from cough. 



Mr. W , aged 34, had had a bronchial affection five 

years. He was much emaciated, had distressing cough, with 
constant pain through the chest. For a few months previous 
to the time of commencing treatment at this Institution, he 
had grown rapidly worse. His friends feared he was in a hope- 
less state, but in two months he returned home, in health to 
recommence business, in which he has been actively engaged 
ever since. 



Mr. H , aged 62, had had bronchitis for nine years, 

attended with difficulty of swallowing, and a cough. There 
was great irritation of the throat, with burning heat and copi- 
ous secretion of mucus. Recently, the symptoms had become 
aggravated, the cough and soreness much increased, and the 
matter raised streaked with blood. He had also hoarseness 
and difficulty of speech. Three months' treatment removed 
these difficulties, and restored him to comfortable health. 



Mr. D , aged 35, had been in ill-health some years, and 

was finally obliged to give up all attention to business. He 
had enlargement of the spleen, causing pain and swelling in 



MOTORPATHY. 153 

the left side. He had diseased kidney, pain in the back and 
loins, and was unable to endure any active exercise. By a short 
course of Motorpathic treatment, he was restored to health. 



Mr. D , aged 39, had for several years suffered from dis- 
eased kidneys. He was much emaciated, and in a very debili- 
tated state. He had pain and weakness in the small of the 
back, and much pain and difficulty in urinating. His lungs 
were weak, and there was a general wasting of the system, or 
sinking into nervous consumption. 

The kidneys were soon freed from disease, the nervous system 
w r as restored to a healthy state, and he was rapidly regaining 
muscular strength, when he left the Institution. 



Mrs. B. G , aged 45, from Canada, was brought 300 

miles by boat and carriage, in an easy chair, her husband, sis- 
ter and physician accompanying her. Her difficulties were 
dropsy of the pericardium, enlarged spleen, great weakness of 
the back and hips, leucorrhea of long standing, menorrhagia, 
and general weakness and debility. This case, on examination, 
was thought nearly hopeless. Her blood was very thin and 
watery — countenance pale and cadaverous, skin glossy, and her 
feet and ankles much swollen, with many minor difficulties. 
While under treatment she improved slowly but steadily. To 



154 EXPOSITION OF 

her own delight and that of others, difficulty after difficulty 
was overcome, until she was perfectly restored, and returned 
home in good health. 



Miss , aged 14. Her first symptom of declining health 

noticed by her parents, was failing memory, about eighteen 
months previous. A few months subsequently she had an at- 
tack of lung fever, and had had a cough since — -her pulse one 
hundred and twenty per minute. She complained of pain and 
weakness in the small of the back — menstruation commenced 
at eleven years old, but had not been regular. Had leucorrhea 
with much irritation. She complained of tenderness of the 
sternum and more particularly near the apex of the heart. 
Her bloating was first observed about seven months previous. 
She had little general appearance of dropsy. Her face was a 
little bloated, but her abdomen was very large. She improved 
rapidly under treatment. In six weeks, the size of the abdo- 
men had diminished one half — her circulation was more 
moderate and her symptoms in every respect better. 

She was under treatment three months, and was perfectly 
cured. She left without the least symptom of dropsy or chest 
disease. She took any amount of exercise — walked — raced — 
and played from morning till night, as gay as a butterfly. 



Mr. P , aged 32, had been out of health ten years ; was 



MOTORPATHY. 155 

very nervous ; at times desponding and fearful, his mind easily- 
troubled ; at others, unduly exhilerated. He was never vio- 
lent in those fits of preternatural exhileration, which often came 
on just at evening, but sometimes very noisy and wild. There 
was also an almost total loss of memory. His lungs were 
weak, kidneys diseased, and his whole system much deranged. 
He improved with surprising rapidity — he became uniformly 
cheerful, his memory was restored, and at the end of six weeks 
he returned home, convalescent. 



Mrs. , aged 42, had not been in good health for three 

or four years. She had some pain in the back, side, and head, 
and occasionally numbness of the hands and feet. Her nervous 
system had been weak and excitable. Eight months previous, 
she had attended a protracted meeting — became anxious and 
somewhat gloomy. Some four or five months after, she had 
been baptized. Since that she had become impressed with the 
idea that she had committed an unpardonable sin, and that the 
Lord had given her over to hardness of heart. Her mind was 
constantly brooding upon this. She neglected her family, and 
was wholly unfitted for the enjoyments and duties of life. 
Her improvement under treatment was remarkable. In a 
month's time, she was as gay as the gayest — having been natu- 
rally as it was found of a very lively temperament, although 
no one would have suspected it from her appearance when she 



156 EXPOSITION OF 

came. In six -weeks she returned to her home in health and 
freedom ofT)ody and mind. 



Mr. C , aged 33, had an attack resembling cholera, 

which left him with a general prostration of the whole system. 
He suffered from constant palpitation of the heart, and a gen- 
eral nervous excitability. He could not walk across a room 
without producing a fit of violent trembling with twitching of 
the muscles, over which he seemed to lose all control. His in- 
tellectual organization suffered in proportion with the physical. 
He was incapable of any mental effort. A few weeks' treat- 
ment produced an entire renovation of his system. He could 
walk a distance of several miles at a time, and enter into the 
various exercises and amusements of the Institution, with joy 
and animation. 



Mrs. B , aged 52, had for many years been exceedingly 

nervous. Her food distressed her, and she suffered from nau- 
sea, head-ache, and almost every distressed feeling imaginable. 
Every day she had excessive sinking turns — her eyes would 
close, a cold perspiration start out, the pulse at the wrist be- 
come imperceptible, the blood settle under her nails, and her 
whole appearance present every indication of dissolution. She 
was the widow of a physician who had practiced successfully 



MOTORPATHY. 15 7 

many years, but had been unable to cure Her. After his de- 
cease, she applied to physicians far and near ; traveled, visited 
watering places, and tried every kind of treatment recommend- 
ed by her numerous friends. At length she chanced to meet a 
friend who was returning home from this Institution, whither 
she had been conveyed a few months previously, in an almost 
hopeless stage of consumption. This lady, now enjoying good 
health, induced her friend also to try this Motorpahtic treatment 
— under which she recovered with surprising rapidity. Seven 
years ago this truly astonishing cure was performed. Her 
daughter recently informed us that her mother had enjoyed 
excellent health ever since. 



Mrs. , aged 53, had been in ill health many years. She 

had been a great sufferer from neuralgia and nervous fits, hav- 
ing them on an average once a week. The neuralgia was 
mostly confined to the chest. She had occasional attacks of it 
in the head and face. She had turns of severe pain in the 
bowels, attended with cramping and bilious vomitings, which 
she called neuralgia, but which I considered owing to a dis- 
eased state of the liver, and the presence of acrid bile in the 
alimentary canal. Her improvement under treatment was 
slow, but at the end of three and a half months she left cured. 
Some three months after, an acquaintance of her's coming to 

the Institution, said Mrs. continued in good health, having 

had no recurrence of her disease — that she had dismissed her 



158 EXPOSITION OF 

help, and was performing the labor of the household without 
assistance. 



Mrs. , aged 39, had been taken twelve years previous, 

with palpitation of the heart, and had since had frequent, severe 
paroxysms, of several hours in duration. On examination, it 
was found that both liver and spleen were hypertrophied. She 
had a bad leucorrhea, and the os-uteri was covered with small 
tumors. She had been growing thin in flesh for some time, 
and the scrofulous cachexy had become very apparent. She 
could not make a sudden movement or take any active exer- 
cise, on account of its increasing the action of the heart. She 
did not remain long in this condition, after treatment was com- 
menced. It had the desired effect of bringing about a healthier 
action of the system. She had but one severe paroxysm of 
palpitation after commencing treatment. That was near the 
close of the first month. All her other difficulties subsided, 
and she gained in flesh and strength. She took a large amount 
of active exercise for weeks before leaving. 



Miss A. R , aged 28, had a partial paralysis of the left 

side of the body — the limbs and even that side of the head 
being affected, which caused pain and a strange, uneasy sensa- 
tion of numbness. Her nerves were very weak and irritable — 



MOTORPATHY. 159 

digestion impaired — bowels very costive — cold hands and feet, 
■with occasional great heat — liver in a torpid state, lungs very 
weak, and a stubborn bronchitis. After all the other difficulties 
were removed, the inflammation of the bronchia, and enlarge- 
ment of the tonsils continued for some time, but these diseases 
were also eventually overcome. She left, feeling (to use her 
own words,) like another being, and more like her former self, 
than she had ever expected to be again. 



Miss T , a young lady, while attending school, had an 

attack of paralysis or numb-palsy, through her left side. Three 
weeks after the attack she was brought to this Institution. 
She had had no passage from her bowels in twenty-one days, 
during which time she had taken twenty-seven potions of 
physic. Previous to the attack of paralysis, she had been con- 
sidered in rather a precarious situation with a severe cough 
and liver complaint, several of her family having died of con- 
sumption. In seven weeks she returned to her parents conval- 
escent, and in a short time regained health, in the enjoyment 
of which, she continues to the present time, now five years since 
her treatment. 



Mr. , had been subject to attacks of epilepsy, or falling 

sickness for several years, at first at long intervals, but latterly 
of frequent recurrence, sometimes several in a day. Diagnosis 



160 EXPOSITION OF 

— Great determination of blood to the head ; face and hands 
presenting the blue or purple appearance of one in a state of 
strangulation ; also, great mental derangement. He began to 
improve immediately under this treatment, and at the end of 
six weeks, returned home perfectly restored to health, both in 
body and mind. He has had no recurrence of the disease. 



Miss , aged 22, had been for something more than two 

years past, subject to epilepsy. She was also in the habit of 
walking in her sleep. These fits of somnolency supervened to 
any trifling excitement, so that she came to expect either sleep- 
walking or epilepsy to follow a day of excitement or fatigue. 
She occasionally had daily periodical turns of drowsiness or 
lethargy, from which it was almost impossible to arouse her. 
Her face flushed painfully at times. Her circulation was accel- 
erated at all times, and emotion or agitation rendered it very 
rapid. She was all nervous excitement. On examination, her 
uterus was found very much congested, the cervix rigid, and 
the organ very much fallen. One month's treatment reduced 

the uterus to its natural size, and caused it to maintain an up- 
right position. The cervix gradually lost its rigidity. She 

had no fit of epilepsy after commencing treatment, but occa- 
sionally symptoms of its approach. She remained under treat- 
ment, two and a half months, and left cured. 



MOTORPATHY. 161 

Miss E , aged 21, had been in ill-health ten years. She 

was highly scrofulous, had a compound curvature of the spine, 
prolapsus uteri, indigestion, and great nervous debility. She 
was constitutionally delicate ; her monthly periods had never 
been regularly established. She had been eight years subject 
to paroxysms of palpitation of the heart, and violent spasmodic 
convulsions daily, and often several times a day, which nothing 
but morphine would alleviate. She had taken this medicine 
regularly three times a day — oftener when the spasms increased 
in severity or frequency — eight years ! increasing the dose till 
the quantity daily taken was enormous. 

A short course of treatment removed all difficulties, except 
the curvature, which was rapidly progressing to a cure. She 
had not the slightest symptom of spasm for weeks before she 
left, and was entirely released from the habit of opium taking, 
which had so long been destroying her mental as well as phys- 
ical faculties. 



Mrs. S , aged 35, had been afflicted with spinal irritation 

five years, which caused her intense suffering. She had re- 
sorted to the usual method of treating this disease — blisters, 
tartar emetic applications, seatons, and caustic, without obtain- 
ing more than a temporary relief. So acute was her suffering, 
that she was in the habit of applying a fresh blister whenever 
she wished to make any particular exertion, the external irrita- 
tion produced by the blister rendering her less conscious of 
the original pain. She could not raise her hands to her head, 



162 EXPOSITION OF 

or indeed, move her arms without increase of pain. Her face 
was always painfully flushed, and her head hot, while her hands 
and feet were cold. The second night after commencing treat- 
ment, she was able to lie in bed the whole night, and rested 
well, which she had not done before in four years. She was 
soon able to bowl, and enter into the gymnastic and calisthenic 
exercises with enjoyment. In six weeks, she returned home in 
perfect health. 



A little boy, aged two years, having very imperfect use of 
his limbs, and some distortion of the spine, was brought to this 
Institution by his mother, whose maternal anxiety was, perhaps, 
more excited, in consequence of her eldest child, a boy of 16 
years, being a deformed cripple ; his disease having commenced 
in infancy, in the same manner as that of the present one. The 
child was under treatment two months, the mother remaining 
with him. and discharging her duties with a praiseworthy per- 
severance. She was rewarded by the perfect restoration of the 
child. 

There are hundreds of children suffered to grow up unhealthy, 
deformed or without the use of their limbs, with intellects 
blunted, and with systems filled with scrofula, exhibiting itself 
in various forms, who might be made perfectly healthy by 
proper treatment. 



Miss If. D , aged 26 years. — This was a case of com- 



MOTORPATHY. 163 

pound lateral curvature of the spine, of five years' .standing. 
The ribs on the right side were much thrown out, those on the 
left being correspondingly depressed. The right shoulder was 
three and a half inches higher than the left. The left hip was 
thrown forward and up. After six months' treatment, this lady 
was discharged, perfectly restored in health and in symmetry of 
form. Four years have elapsed, and she continues perfectly well, 
being able to discharge all kinds of household duties. 



Miss W , aged 19, had a compound lateral curvature of 

the spine of four years' standing. One shoulder was enlarged, 
and the opposite hip thrown out, making one limb several inches 
shorter than the other. There was also a partial laxation of 
the hip joint, which rendered it impossible for her to walk 
without a crutch. When she had been five weeks under treat- 
ment, she discarded the crutch, having no farther need of it. 
Her hip rapidly regained its natural position and strength, and 
she can walk several miles at a time. Her lameness is not 
perceptible. 



Mrs. , aged 33, commenced treatment for sciatica, from 

which she had lost the use of her hip. She had not walked in 
eighteen months. 

Perfect motion and use of the hip was established in less 



164 EXPOSITION OF 

than two months, so that she could walk, run and exercise in 
various ways, without the least detriment. 



Miss , aged 22, after performing a journey of five hun- 
dred miles upon a bed, arrived at this Institution, helpless as an 
infant, July, 1851. She had a posterior and anterior curvature 
of the spine, with caries of the lower dorsal vertebrae, accom- 
panied with extreme irritation along the whole spinal column, 
producing great nervous excitability throughout the system. 
She had been an invalid eight years, and six years and a half 
of that time, she had not been able to sit up or bear her w r eight 
upon her feet. The least pressure upon any of the vertebrae 
produced pain, and frequently severe spasms. Convulsions of 
more or less severity, were a frequent attendant through her 
sickness ; sometimes they lasted but a few minutes, and at 
others they continued for hours. They frequently reduced her 
to that degree, that she could not articulate a word above a 
whisper for some time after. She suffered constantly from neu- 
ralgic pains, either in the stomach, head, back, bowels or uterus. 
Nothing relieved these, but large and repeated opiates. The 
system became so accustomed to these, that they afforded 
little or no relief, even when taken to the amount of half an 
ounce of laudanum per day. 

The loss of vita-motive power in the bowels, occasioned by 
pressure upon the spinal nerves from curvature of the spine, 



MOTORPATHY. 165 

caused confirmed constipation, the bowels being almost in a 
paralyzed state, and this torpidity was increased by the opiates 
to such a degree, that it required powerful cathartics and ene- 
mas to move them. The stomach, liver and pancreas were 
much diseased. There was a paralysis through one side and 
limb, affecting the internal viscera, and particularly the uterus 
and rectum. An examination per speculum, showed scrofulous 
ulceration of the vagina. There were also granulations of the 
os-uteri and enlargement of the uterus. The granulations were 
small, hard and very numerous. There was a leucorrheal dis- 
charge, and much heat in the vaginal membrane. "When she 
had been six weeks under treatment, she walked up and down two 
flights of stairs, and all about the house with being led — ulcera- 
tions were improving — better in every respect. At the end of 
three and a half months, the ulcerations had healed, the gran- 
ulations disappeared, leucorrhea also, except occasionally, after 
over fatigue. She walked from half a mile to a mile at a time, 
several times daily, and took active exercise in bowling, calis- 
thenics, gymnastics, &c, &c. She was under treatment six 
months, and obtained an erect carriage. All tenderness had 
left the spine. There remained a slight unevenness, owing to 
the caries. Though it was impossible that her constitution 
should become firm and strong, she left in comfortable health, 
and could endure more fatigue than very many who think their 
health perfect. 



We shall give but a partial history of the following case, for 



166 EXPOSITION OF 

should we describe it in detail, we should fear the incredulity 
of our readers. She had been a medical anomaly, causing suf- 
ficient curiosity to call together, over sixty medical gentlemen, 
who examined her case, and agreed in at least one opinion, that 
it was beyond their medical acumen to account for all the 
various phenomena exhibited in her case. 

This lady was twenty-three years of age. She had fallen 
from a wagon while a child, and injured her spine. During 
nine years she had been unable to walk or sit up but little, and 
for four years previous to being placed under our care, she had 
not turned in bed, but had lain upon her left side during all 
that time. When she arrived, she was in a comatose state, 
and remained so for some time after. When she became con- 
scious, she commenced gesticulating or nervously throwing out 
her hands and arms, in a rapid and involuntary manner. 
These motions had been continued for three years, except when 
asleep or in fits. On attempting to hold her hands or arms, it 
would increase her misery, and if persisted in would cause her 
severe convulsions. Her lower limbs were drawn up, so that 
her heels laid tight against her thighs. Her foot was con- 
tracted so as almost to form a straight line with her leg. The 
toes were drawn in and imbedded in the ball of the foot. The 
above condition of her limbs and feet had existed, without a 
moment's change, for four years. During this time or for 
three years past, she had daily convulsions, and sometimes she 
lay in them, the greater part of the day. She had a scrofulous 
tumor in each breast, the size of a small egg, one of which 
was of a dark-purple hue, and very painful at times. She had 



MOTORPATHY. 167 

been subject to discharges of blood and dark, foetid matter from 
the head. It escaped, usually, through her nose and mouth, 
but sometimes from her ears. It could be produced at will, by 
gently pressing the hand upon the head, over the organ of rev- 
erence, when it would immediately gush out at the mouth. 
This bursting forth of a blood-like fluid, was sometimes spon- 
taneous, and appeared to occur periodically. She never men- 
struated, unless this was a vicarious appearance of it. Her 
nervous system was so excitable at times, that the least touch 
would throw her into convulsions. After some of those fits, 
her jaws would be set, so that she could not move them, or 
speak for several weeks. She had turns of bloating in the 
abdomen, extending it to the utmost tension of the skin, and 
would remain so for several days. Then it would suddenly and 
unaccountably disappear, without an escape of gas, or a dis- 
charge from the bowels, bladder or vagina, leaving the bowels 
soft, flabby and sunken. She would at other times lay for 
hours and days, rigid, and without appearance of life. At 
times, it would appear as if the urine and foeces were more or 
less absorbed, and secreted through the skin. There was a 
paralysis throughout the urinary organs, caused by a lateral 
curvature of the spine. The bougie and syringe had to be fre- 
quently used, or there would be no passage from the bladder or 
bowels. The curvature between the shoulders, produced an 
irritation, or dry inflammation of the lungs, causing laborious 
respiration, something like asthma, resembling the last agony in 
death. Those unacquainted with her, would naturally suppose 

she Was dying. This state would at times last for several days. 
11 



168 EXPOSITION OF 

She was extremely irritable and tender about the external gen- 
ital organs, so much so, that bathing the parts with water, 
occasioned fits. Internally, the vaginal membrane put on the 
same inflamed appearance. The os-uteri and cervix were much 
swollen, and fallen so as to rest upon the perineum. An offen- 
sive leucorrhea, of a corroding nature, attended her all the 
time. The right shoulder was much enlarged, and the opposite 
hip was thrown upward, causing one leg to be four inches 
shorter than the other. Her pulse could seldom be felt at the 
wrist, and when felt, were so rapid they could not be counted. 
Motorpathic treatment soon subdued the inflammation, and 
lessened the extreme nervous irritability. Special attention 
was given to the spine, having regarded its inability to trans- 
mit vital power, as the primary cause of her peculiar symp- 
toms. The uterus was with extreme difficulty made to main- 
tain its natural position. She was nearly two months under 
treatment, before the feet could be moved more than a few 
inches from the hips ; and when that much was gained, in- 
stead of their continuing to straighten gradually, it was ac- 
complished suddenly, as by a spasmodic movement. The con- 
traction of the toes did not yield, until some weeks after. Her 
recovery was continually being interrupted by relapses of one 
kind or another. It was some sis months before she could 
walk without assistance. By perseverance through many dis- 
couragements, one difficulty after another gave way, until they 
were all removed. She was under treatment fourteen months. 
In less than one year after leaving the Institution, she was mar- 
ried to an estimable young man, and is very happy. 



MOTORPATHY. 169 

I am fully persuaded that the spinal curvature was the whole 
cause of all her other difficulties ; and the curvature, I think, 
was more owing to hereditary scrofula, than to the fall from 
the wagon, as most physicians had supposed. Spinal diseases 
are fast increasing, and thousands of our young people are un- 
der their influence without even suspecting the difficulty. We 
fear too many are treated for the effects, rather than the cause 
of disease. Parents should pay strict attention to their chil- 
dren's habits in standing, sitting, and walking, and see that they 
favor no one point. The spinal column should be frequently 
examined, to see if it is upright and free from any enlarge- 
ment or indentation of any of the vertabrae. The hips and 
shoulders should be also examined and compared, to see if they 
are equal as to height and thickness. A timely attention to 
these suggestions may save life and much suffering. 

Irritation, soreness, and pain about the spinal column, have 
sometimes been measurably relieved by phlogistic treatment ; 
but to apply local irritants for the purpose of removing spinal 
curvatures, is preposterous. 

Ail cases of curvatures are attended with contractions of 
some of the muscles which support the spine, and as a means 
for lessening these contractions, and relieving the spinal nerves 
from the pressure occasioned by the curvature, which the weight 
of the body is continually pressing upon them, I use a spring 
elevator, constructed so that it rests upon the hips, with arm- 
pieces slightly raising the arms, so that the weight of the body 
is transferred from the spinal column to the hips. This is 



170 EXPOSITION OF 

worn a few hours in a day as a portion of the treatment ; but 
as elasticity and strength of muscles depend on use, it is vain 
to think of reducing their contractions, without providing for 
their free flexions in every conceivable manner. This is to be 
done by various gymnastic and other exercises, by the applica- 
tion of galvanism, by the Motorpathic use of water, and by all 
the aids for the establishment of motion and use, which can be 
brought to bear in the individual case. 

Some curved spines would be straightened with the elevator 
alone, but it would cause uneasiness, and render the patient un- 
healthy and languid. A continued stretch of the muscles in 
one way, or one set of muscles without rest, or the exercise of 
other muscles to relieve them, produces a diseased action, which 
destroys their tone and elasticity. It is only by a judicious 
course of exercise, which brings all the muscles of the body 
into action, that the depressed portions will fill out, and the 
whole form expand and assume that compact roundness of 
contour, and elasticity of motion, which gives the air of grace, 
suppleness and strength, which we observe in healthy persons of 
a perfect form. 

As well might the musician expect to find the chords of his 
instrument in harmony and tune, after being left for months 
screwed up to their utmost strength, as a physician expect to 
find a healthy tone and elasticity in the muscles of his patient, 
after having been stretched for months without exercise or 
variation. Such a course, to say the least, is of equivocal ben- 
efit to the patient. "When the elevator is removed from a pa- 



MOTORPATHY. lTl 

tient treated in this way, the muscles will relax, and for the 
want of strength and energy, they allow the spine to gradually 
assume its former curved position. But when the spine is 
straightened by the use of a proportionate quantity of such 
exercises as tend to develope the strength, size, and activity of 
those muscles which are connected with, and tend to support 
it, giving them a harmonious and elastic action — it is impossi- 
ble for it again to relapse into a curved position, if the body 
has healthful exercise, unless some accident should occur in af- 
ter life. 



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